First Milk Shelters Members
01 October 2009
First Milk increased the returns paid to its members in the year to 31 March 2009, with the average standard litre price rising to 25.35ppl, an increase of 3.76ppl compared with to the previous year.
Group turnover declined by 3% to £582 million, mainly due to a decrease in powder, cheese and whey returns in the second half of the year.
The business made a loss after tax of £7.1 million year during 2008/09, this included a non-recurring charge of £3.6 million primarily related to restructure and redundancies at the Claygate and Maelor sites.
Peter Humphreys, First Milk's chief executive commented:
"As we have seen from the results of others who operate in the UK dairy sector, 2008/09 was a year of challenges and volatility.
"Recognising that rising on-farm costs were putting serious financial pressure on our producers, as a Board we took the decision in late 2008 to utilise the reserves we had built up in order to shelter members as much as possible from the market downturn.
Read the full story at http://www.firstmilk.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=790:first-milk-uses-reserves-to-shelter-members-from-market-downturn&catid=10:news-articles&Itemid=91
