Arla Germany reports positive 2019
Markus Mühleisen
“Our business in Germany has developed well in the past year. Because in addition to continued positive brand business and a further improved earnings situation, we have significantly increased the focus on the central topic of sustainability with our farmers and developed future-oriented, new programmes. With the climate check programme for farmers and the revised and expanded Arlagården quality programme, we are setting standards in the dairy industry.
“We have thus laid the foundation for our future success and further growth. I am particularly impressed by our cooperative members, the Arla farmers, who consistently follow this path for more sustainability despite the major economic challenges in the dairy industry,” said Markus Mühleisen, CEO of Arla Foods Germany (pictured).
Contrary to the general market trend, Arla was able to grow its brand business in Germany in 2019 as in the previous two years. Sales in the core brands area rose by 2.6 % (volume-based). Arla Bio was particularly strong again; with a sales increase of 15.2 % in the entire white line. Arla organic fresh milk continued as a segment leader with an increase of 22.4%. Arla Protein products also found more buyers, increasing sales by 5.3%, And Arla Buko also showed a strong 4.2% increase in the highly competitive fresh cheese market.
With the Arla Climate Check Programme, farmers can now determine the carbon footprint of their milk production and identify improvement measures to reduce their carbon emissions with the help of an external sustainability consultant.
The new, revised Arlagården quality programme now places a strong focus on the aspects of climate and nature in addition to the areas of milk quality, food safety and animal welfare. Arla Foods has set itself the goal of reducing its carbon emissions along the entire value chain by 30% by 2030 and to zero by 2050.
Environmentally friendly packaging also contributes to this. In Germany, 205 million Arla cups for yogurt and cream products were converted to recyclable plastics last year.
Arla also supports the “Too Good To Go” campaign. From spring onwards, products from the Arla Skyr and Arla Bio brands will be given the addition of “often longer good” in addition to the best-before dates. More Arla brands will follow.
In 2020 there will also be a strong focus on Arla Skyr with the most extensive investments since the brand was founded. In the skyr sector, Arla is the top brand on the German market. The brand will be further strengthened this year with a large-scale campaign and an improved recipe as well as new products in the snacking area.
In addition, after the successful brand relaunch last year, the regional brand Hansano is to be expanded with innovative products in 2020.
“This year we want to continue our brand growth in order to further increase the value added for the milk of our cooperative members. This is the only way we can pay an appropriate milk allowance in the long term, with which farmers can set up their farms in a sustainable and future-proof manner. We also work with our retail customers on innovative products with higher added value. We are particularly focusing on the new pilot plant in our plant in Upahl, which we started up last autumn,” Mühleisen stated.