Higher profit and turnover at Crediton Dairy

Both profit and turnover jumped at Devon-based Crediton Dairy in the year to 2 January 2021.

The company makes dairy drinks for the multiple retailer, convenience and wholesale markets and estimates that a quarter of all supermarkets in Britain stock its products. Iced coffee and long-life milks are two of its leading lines.

Turnover, at £87.3m, was up 17.2%, while pre-tax profits more than doubled, to £9.8m.

Crediton made capital investments of £7.4m in 2020 to increase capacity and capability, and is investing another £4m this year.

See also: Spot milk prices on rise as market tightens

It reported strong sales volume growth across all categories of its products in 2020, including long-life milk, which overall saw growth of more than 18% as shoppers bought groceries less often as a result of the pandemic.

The strategic report to the accounts noted that while Brexit had had no material impact on Crediton Dairy to date, an ongoing concern was the possibility of the UK negotiating free-trade agreements with major low-cost dairy exporting countries. The report warned that this could result in dairy goods produced to lower welfare standards being imported into the UK, undermining quality and pricing.

The dairy expanded its farmer supply base to 70 producers during the year, supplying 113m litres of milk.

In October 2019 it introduced a fixed-price offer of 28p/litre for up to 50% of a producer’s milk, for two years. A further offer is expected this month.