Meadow Foods buys West Lakes Dairy Park

Dairy ingredients business Meadow Foods has completed the acquisition of Cumbria-based West Lakes Dairy Park for an undisclosed fee.

The sale sees Meadow Foods gain an extra 200m litres of milk from the 150 Cumbrian farmers who currently hold agreements to supply West Lakes.

Meadow Foods has guaranteed it will pay a price of 27.5p/litre for the first quarter of 2008 to all its West Lake members.

Producers will also be paid on a weekly basis for that period, Meadow Foods said.

Paul Deakin, Meadow Foods managing director, said the firm would be working closely with its new group of farmer producers to build Cumbria’s milk supply.

“As a long-term, growing and financially stable dairy ingredients business, Meadow Foods is in a strong position to ensure that farmers continue to get an attractive return for their milk,” he said.

“Demand from our food manufacturing customers has been increasingly steadily over recent months and this acquisition will also enable us to offer our customers the guaranteed secure milk supply that they need to plan and develop their businesses.”