History

Milk Link started trading in April 2000 as one of the three successor co-operatives to Milk Marque. We recognised that fundamental and innovative change was needed to meet the demands of a global marketplace. In 2001 our Members committed to transforming Milk Link into a vertically integrated dairy business in order to create a long term sustainable future for their enterprises.

At the heart of this strategy was the need to invest in existing processing capacity with a skilled workforce, established products and valuable consumer-facing markets.

Today, Milk Link is one of the UK’s largest integrated dairy businesses with a network of eight processing facilities which have the capacity to process around 1.3 billion litres of milk into a wide range of added-value products. This has been the result of our focus on acquiring existing businesses with excellent processing facilities and on developing strong strategic alliances.

Acquisitions, Alliances and Dispersals

June 2009

Milk Link completes its acquisition of Llandyrnog Creamery in Denbighshire, North Wales. Famous for its Cadog brand of Cheddar, the creamery was bought from Dairy Farmers of Britain.

September 2008

Milk Link completes the sale of its Staplemead Creamery and associated operations to Andros, the French food and dairy products business.

December 2006

Milk Link completes the acquisition of 100% of The Cheese Company, giving the company full control over the direction and earnings of the UK’s largest producer of quality British cheeses.

September 2006

Milk Link completes the sale of its regional fresh liquid milk business.

February 2004

Milk Link’s acquisition of a 75 per cent controlling stake in Cheese Company Holdings and the subsequent creation of The Cheese Company makes us a leading producer of British cheese. It confirms Milk Link as the UK’s leading and fastest growing integrated dairy business and secures 620 million litres of additional milk processing capacity for our Members’ milk.