Organic dairy food company being divested

The long-established organic dairy food producer Rachel’s Dairy is being put on the market by its US owner, Dean Foods, for a reported £20 million.

Dean Foods have apparently asked investment bankers NM Rothschild to examine strategic options, which include a trade sale.

The original founder of the firm, Rachel Rowlands, owned a dairy farm in West Wales which had been passed down to her by her mother, one of the original people to sign up to the Soil Association in 1952. In 1966 Brynllys Farm began selling organic milk to the Milk Marketing Board.

The move into yoghurts happened by accident in 1982 after milk tankers couldn’t reach the farm in 1982 because of bad weather conditions. Rachel and her family were sitting on large milk supplies that would have gone off, had they not quickly diversified into making butter and cream by hand to offer locals.

Encouraged by this impromptu experiment, the family researched old dairy recipes and expanded into regular production of organic desserts, cream, yoghurts and crème fraiche which are now stocked by major supermarket chains.

The latest reported accounts from Companies House show revenues of £21.6 million for the year ended 31st December, 2008 with net profits of £2.4m up from £1.8 million the previous year.

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