Danish dairy company Arla Foods plans to close its dairy and distribution facility at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England in April 2014, a move which will result in 370 job losses.
The company stated that it will transfer the volume of milk processed at Ashby-de-la-Zouch plant to the new dairy in Aylesbury over a phased period from October this year.
Ashby Dairy, which was opened in the early 1920s, became part of the Arla portfolio following its merger with Express Dairies in October 2003. The facility processes and packs fresh milk, some of it organic.
The company plans to outsource distribution to a third party provider; however, it will continue to collect milk as usual from farms supplying the dairy and will deliver it to the company's other processing sites.
Arla UK's supply chain head Lars Dalsgaard said that the new dairy in Aylesbury is on track to be processing milk by the autumn and volumes are ahead of the company's expectations.
"In line with our long-term business goal, we intend to maximise the use of our well-invested dairies, complemented by our new, cutting edge, processing facility in Aylesbury, to meet the requirements of our customers," Dalsgaard added.
Arla UK has a milk pool of 3.2 billion liters and is seeking to expand its supply by a further 500 million liters by 2017, by recruiting new farmers and through the expansion if its existing supplying farms.
