Dairy Grant to Bring 100 Jobs to Town

By Steve Dube

A FARMER-OWNED dairy co-operative has received a Welsh Assembly Government grant towards a pounds 3.65m investment in its Bridgend plant.

Dairy Farmers of Britain has been awarded a processing and marketing grant of pounds 1.2m to support a major redevelopment and expansion of the former Golden Vale dairy, which was bought last October.

The company intends to triple throughput over the next three years to a total of 165m litres per annum and create 100 new jobs at the Bridgend site.

DFB chief executive, Andrew Cooksey, said the company’s key aim is to add value to dairy products for the benefit of farmer members, by developing processing and marketing capabilities.

‘This grant has allowed us to move a step further in our development plans, which will help to provide for a more sustainable future within the dairy industry for our members,’ he said.

Wales Countryside Minister Carwyn Jones, who is AM for Bridgend, said the company’s level of investment was a clear sign of its commitment to its members in Wales.

‘This grant will help the co-operative to further its valuable work in our dairy industry and continue to promote excellent Welsh produce,’ he said.

DFB currently operates three dairies in Wales – the others are Llandyrnog Creamery and Cardiff Dairy.

A short lease at the Cardiff site means production there will cease after 2009.

DFB will be encouraging as many employees as possible to transfer to the Bridgend site from Cardiff.

The company, founded in 2002 through the merger of Zenith Milk and The Milk Group, is now the leading milk processor in Wales, marketing the popular, bilingually-labelled range of Welsh-sourced Cadog dairy products.

It has 2,700 individual farmer members, and employs around 2,750 staff at ten processing sites and 60 distributions centres across England and Wales.

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