Dairy Crest, the UK’s leading branded dairy foods company, today announces the proposed sale of the majority of its retailer brand cheese operations to First Milk Limited for a net cash consideration of £61.9 million. The proposed sale is conditional on the approval of First Milk’s members and is expected to complete on 14 October following a consultation process with affected employees.

Drummond Hall, Chief Executive, Dairy Crest Group plc, said: ’This sale allows Dairy Crest to focus on accelerating the development of Cathedral City and its other cheese brands. The deal is expected to improve the return on capital employed in the cheese business. It will also improve the quality of the Group’s earnings overall, with an increased proportion of Group sales coming from brands. We believe that the business being sold will have a sound future under the ownership of First Milk.’

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Luke Withnell 020 7484 8800