Arla Food to milk self supply opportunities

Ofwat has awarded self supply water and sewerage licences to Arla Food, a farmer-owned dairy cooperative.

Across ten sites in England, Arla manufactures a wide range of products including milk, yoghurt, cream and cheese under brands such as Cravendale, Anchor, Lurpak and Castello. Its application in October 2020 stated an aim to reduce water and energy consumption by 3% annually, as well as to have a clean data set to ensure visibility of consumption and cost.

Arla has partnered with Waterscan to operate as a self supplier. Waterscan’s managing director Neil Pendle, commented: “Water is a critical resource for all manufacturing processes. Of course, this is somewhat easier to manage at single-site operations, but Arla’s supply chain is rather more complex with thousands of farmers feeding into its manufacturing sites. This renders the resilience of its supply open to variable climate-related risks from location to location.

Self-supply will give Arla unrivalled transparency and control, comprehensive data for accurate billing across its whole UK operation and with this, opportunities to build on its water efficiency work to date. Ultimately it will help reduce risk across the business and secure a sustainable future.”