First Milk Home

The fact that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have cleared our merger with Milk Link is an important hurdle. Clearly, it is an important step towards a full merger with Milk Link, but it also sends out a signal that the OFT will not stand in the way of consolidation in the British dairy sector. We are operating in a world market where we face powerful competition from major international players, and we need the British regulators to provide us with the freedom to allow us to compete.

2007 was an important year in the development of First Milk. We now have a substantial cheese and ingredients business to add to our milk brokerage arm. Crucially, we integrated those businesses at a fast pace while winning new accounts, and developing new products. Given that we are now well-established players in the liquid, cheese and ingredients markets, this puts us in a stronger position than others in the industry who are exposed to only one market.

However, the achievements of 2007 are now history. We are now into a new year and we have new challenges to overcome. In terms of what we can achieve, I believe we have only scratched the surface so far. I remain convinced that we will succeed in developing your business while making the right strategic moves to enable us to move forward at a faster pace.