MORE than 250 jobs are being axed after a dairy company became the latest victim of the economic downturn.
Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) has announced it will close its Fole dairy, near Uttoxeter, with the loss of 246 jobs and up to 15 more will be cut from its head office near Nantwich.
The company said it had been hampered by cream prices, which have nearly halved in 12 months, while energy bills have risen to “unprecedented” levels.
It is cutting up to 640 jobs across the UK in total, including in Portsmouth, Cheshunt, Leeds and Lincoln.
not sure how many drivers will be going, i know this depot took milk to the coop depots
Cream prices have halved?. I just went to Asda today and bought a tub of Double Cream and it was the same price I remember paying a little over a week ago.
Someone must be coining it as I am still paying full price. Maybe thats why those Asda ads show them patting their back pockets…they are trying to fit all my money in it.
The following is taken from a press release, which details the changes
The proposed closure of Fole Dairy in Staffordshire and Portsmouth Dairy in Hampshire
The proposed rationalisation of distribution depots at Portsmouth, Cheshunt, Leeds and Lincoln
A reduction in corporate headcount at its office in Nantwich and Blaydon
The creation of two autonomously managed divisions within the business
Liquid Milk
Milk Supply and Cheese
There is definatly no ‘creaming of profits’. DFoB is a farmer owned co-op, all producing members will have the price they are paid for their milk dropped by 2ppl to pay for the redundancies and closures. In addition, if they do go bust, they stand to lose alot of capital invested in DFoB. ( We stand to lose about 4 grand , and we haven’t produced milk for 3 years). The crux of it is DFoB made a big mistake in buying the old ACC business, and has lost millions on it. Its all a matter of timing, the banks are less willing to add to the borrowing so reduction is the only option. Other farmer co-ops got into processing years ago and are now able to weather the storm, DFoB did it too late.
I made the mistake of staying when DFoB took over the dairy. Even though we new the business as a whole was not going well the first i heard of the closure was on Friday night when i put a defect in for the unit to be asked “cant it wait till March?”, “why whats happening in March?”,“we’re closing!”…ace. The only good thing is at least we’re getting redundancy cos the way they’ve run it since taking over from ACC has been a joke
Well why do they try and dress it up as falling cream prices, either they were being well and truly ripped off by the supermarkets or the price has gon eup in the last few months. Cream for my coffe has gone up over 20% recently, and milk similar.
Sorry for anyone affected - time to get these clowns in the Govt out of power
Trancer:
Cream prices have halved?. I just went to Asda today and bought a tub of Double Cream and it was the same price I remember paying a little over a week ago.
Someone must be coining it as I am still paying full price. Maybe thats why those Asda ads show them patting their back pockets…they are trying to fit all my money in it.
The_Catman:
Well why do they try and dress it up as falling cream prices, either they were being well and truly ripped off by the supermarkets or the price has gon eup in the last few months. Cream for my coffe has gone up over 20% recently, and milk similar.
Sorry for anyone affected - time to get these clowns in the Govt out of power
TC
Price of whole milk powder halved in past year, and global stocks are relatively high - the downturn in global economy has resulted in reduced demand (not necessarily in this country, but more significant in asian markets) - hence farmgate price falling.
Processors have had fixed period/price contracts but these are now ending, hence they’re running into difficulty since farmers are barely being paid enough to cover cost as it is (energy costs have a huge impact).
Retailers should be increasing payments to suppliers but they’re competing against discounters like Aldi & Co and so debatable how many will do it.
One of the bigger problems is the health issues. Fears of obesity have caused many people to switch to skimmed milk which in turn creates even more cream. oversupply brings the price of cream down.
BUT.
In fact the cream is a natural product, like honey, vegetables and eggs. These are actually better for you than coca cola and fruitshoots, mars bars and chips. When I worked on the tankers we were very busy bringing synthetic sugars and glucose into the UK while taking our cream back to the continent, they were screaming out for the stuff, so much so that they were buying it in from Hungary, Poland Czech Republic and Slovakia.
I cant remember the name of the dairy near Longleat but I was talking to a European buyer there and he could not get enough cream.
Many dairies will survive, the transport of cream is a busy market, if DFGB close, it will strengthen the market. After all you cannot leave the cow full in the field.
Wheel Nut:
One of the bigger problems is the health issues. Fears of obesity have caused many people to switch to skimmed milk which in turn creates even more cream. oversupply brings the price of cream down.
BUT.
In fact the cream is a natural product, like honey, vegetables and eggs. These are actually better for you than coca cola and fruitshoots, mars bars and chips. When I worked on the tankers we were very busy bringing synthetic sugars and glucose into the UK while taking our cream back to the continent, they were screaming out for the stuff, so much so that they were buying it in from Hungary, Poland Czech Republic and Slovakia.
I cant remember the name of the dairy near Longleat but I was talking to a European buyer there and he could not get enough cream.
Many dairies will survive, the transport of cream is a busy market, if DFGB close, it will strengthen the market. After all you cannot leave the cow full in the field.
True - also export market for whole milk powder is coming down, plus production has gone up this year?
The_Catman:
Well why do they try and dress it up as falling cream prices, either they were being well and truly ripped off by the supermarkets or the price has gon eup in the last few months. Cream for my coffe has gone up over 20% recently, and milk similar.
Sorry for anyone affected - time to get these clowns in the Govt out of power
TC
Price of whole milk powder halved in past year, and global stocks are relatively high - the downturn in global economy has resulted in reduced demand (not necessarily in this country, but more significant in asian markets) - hence farmgate price falling.
Processors have had fixed period/price contracts but these are now ending, hence they’re running into difficulty since farmers are barely being paid enough to cover cost as it is (energy costs have a huge impact).
Retailers should be increasing payments to suppliers but they’re competing against discounters like Aldi & Co and so debatable how many will do it.
This whole thing baffles me…
So why has single cream gone up in Tesco and Netto locally??
Recently there was that massive story of contaminated baby milk in China - surely that would have meant an increase in demand for everyone elses milk products…
The_Catman:
Well why do they try and dress it up as falling cream prices, either they were being well and truly ripped off by the supermarkets or the price has gon eup in the last few months. Cream for my coffe has gone up over 20% recently, and milk similar.
Sorry for anyone affected - time to get these clowns in the Govt out of power
TC
Price of whole milk powder halved in past year, and global stocks are relatively high - the downturn in global economy has resulted in reduced demand (not necessarily in this country, but more significant in asian markets) - hence farmgate price falling.
Processors have had fixed period/price contracts but these are now ending, hence they’re running into difficulty since farmers are barely being paid enough to cover cost as it is (energy costs have a huge impact).
Retailers should be increasing payments to suppliers but they’re competing against discounters like Aldi & Co and so debatable how many will do it.
This whole thing baffles me…
So why has single cream gone up in Tesco and Netto locally??
Recently there was that massive story of contaminated baby milk in China - surely that would have meant an increase in demand for everyone elses milk products…
I give up!
TC
Sorry its two separate markets.
So processing market subject to global prices of things which are more easily tradable across the world (powders, processed products) - so processing market experiencing more difficuty.
Liquid (fresh) markets are less affected by world prices, but more by domestic production which was down last year, causing prices to hold/go up. Lots of fresh price dictated (Tesco in particular) by a consultancy company who look at cost of production, so as energy costs go up so too does the price paid to farmers, and passed on to consumer.
Liquid:Processing volumes are about 50:50.
Works beautifully until some retailer does 2 litres for 99p and then the whole thing goes to pot!
Wheel Nut:
I cant remember the name of the dairy near Longleat but I was talking to a European buyer there and he could not get enough cream.
Many dairies will survive, the transport of cream is a busy market, if DFGB close, it will strengthen the market. After all you cannot leave the cow full in the field.
Would that have been Arla foods at Frome? Used to collect cheese from there but another supplier was found, no doubt cheaper.
