Milk Marketing Board: Commercial Enterprise Files

JV 5

1933-1996

This series is concerned with Milk Marketing Board's commercial enterprises, especially the acquisition and operation of its creameries and dairies and the marketing of milk products such as milk powder, cheese, butter, cream, ice-cream, condensed milk and yoghurt. There is also material on research into new products and the Milk Marketing Board's own transport fleet.

Not Public Record(s)

English

384 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

Topics

Trade and commerce

Food and drink

Farming

The Milk Marketing Board had an obligation to find a market for all milk offered for sale by producers. When the volume of production in a given area reached a level which local manufacturing capacity could not cope with, and the dairy trade was unable or unwilling to expand its capacity, Milk Marketing Board was considered to have a duty to do so.

To this end Milk Marketing Board, from its inception, engaged in a number of commercial enterprises, either separately or in collaboration with the dairy trade. At this stage, the marketing of products made by Milk Marketing Board creameries and marketing intelligence about the various milk products were part of the Marketing Officers' duties. As the creameries grew, a separate Creameries Sales Department was established, which eventually became the Product Marketing Department.

A significant amount of milk was manufactured into butter from the 1930s until the early 1960s. The English Butter Company Limited was established by a consortium of English butter manufacturers to market and promote English butter under the brand name "Country Life". However, imports of butter from Commonwealth countries and the Continent caused UK butter manufacturing to diminish to the extent that only a small proportion of milk is manufactured into butter. Another factor which influenced the scale of butter manufacture was the huge amount of publicity given to medical allegations that excess animal fats can lead to health problems.

Much of the subsequent growth in the dairies business was by acquisition. During the 1960s it acquired major dairy businesses in East Anglia (Seaman Group) and the Midlands (Quinney's Dairy). As a result the Dairies business was set up as a separate division in July 1969. In 1979 Milk Marketing Board took over 16 butter, cheese and milk powder manufacturing factories from Unigate. This doubled Milk Marketing Board's milk manufacturing operation overnight, with 26% of ex-farm milk being processed in Milk Marketing Board creameries. The combined operation provided produced 70% of the butter production in England and Wales and 50% of the cheese.

In 1981 these commercial operations were separated from Milk Marketing Board to become Dairy Crest.