Robert Wiseman Dairies will supply a quarter of the UK’s organic milk by the end of this month after announcing new contracts which increase its share of organics five-fold.
Robert Wiseman confirmed it had won new organic contracts from Tesco and Horizon Organic Diary. Later this month it will supply 60 per cent of Tesco’s organic milk, the same proportion of all liquid milk it currently supplies to the supermarket giant.
Previously only holding 5% of the organic market, these new deals increase its portion to more than 24%, roughly the same as its portion of the total UK liquid milk market.
Organic milk will represent around 3% of their total revenue, but the market grew by around 40% in the last 12 months. The chief executive, Robert Wiseman, predicted it would become a significant chunk of consumer demand within a decade: “Where will it get to? I think it will level out over a number of years, but I would like to think it will get up to something approaching double figures [of the total liquid milk market].”
For the next year the supply of organic milk will mainly be handled at the company’s dairy unit in Manchester. However, its sixth factory, the £46 million Bridgwater unit to be completed late in 2007 will be designed to be an organic “centre of excellence”.
Situated in an area with high clover growth which improves organic yields, the factory is closer to the majority of customer