Dairy doubled size on DFOB collapse
The boss of a major Lancashire dairy firm has told how he doubled the size of his business within an hour of the collapse of the Dairy Farmers of Britain co-operative.
Howey Hegarty, managing director of Fylde Dairies which has its
headquarters in Bamber Bridge, near Preston, said his phone was "red
hot" within minutes of the announcement of the firm went into
administration in April.
He took on 14 new farms across the Fylde which moved across from the
co-operative.
The owner said: "It was ridiculous, between 2.15pm and 3.15pm I took
on 14 farms and doubled the size of the business.
"They came to us because they saw us as a business which was going
places, now we produce 30 million litres of milk a year."
Cheshire-based Dairy Farmers of Britain called in administrators
PricewaterhouseCoopers after suffering massive losses, including a
59m debt to banking giant HSBC.
At its peak the co-operative had 2,200 farmers on its books supplying
10% of the country's milk.
He said praised supermarket chain Asda, which the dairy supplies,
which he said had been "very supportive of the industry.
Fylde Dairies also supplies Sainsbury's stores and expects to take on
new deals in the next few weeks.
Mr Hegarty said: "In the Asda store in Blackpool, our milk is
outselling their own branded milk, that does not happen in any of the
other stores it has anywhere in the country.
"Now they want us to supply an extra 70 stores because our product is so good."
Find out about a major new site for Fylde Dairies in Tuesday's
lepbusinessweek supplement.
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Weather for Preston
Thursday 29 July 2010
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 15 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 28 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Light rain
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