Arla Foods, the dairy company owned by 12,000 dairy farmers, has applied to Ofwat for self-supply water and sewerage licences.
Arla Foods manufactures a wide range of products including milk, yoghurt, cream and cheese – under leading brands including Cravendale, Anchor, Lurpak and Castello.
The dairy giant, which has 2,500 dairy farmers based in the UK, applied to the water sector regulator for the licences on 19 October 2020.
The synopsis of Arla Foods’ business plan published by Ofwat states that the firm has ten sites in England and recognises that water is a vital part in manufacturing its products, from cleaning and disinfection processes for milk (transportation) tankers and milk bottles, through to ensuring the everyday running of its cooling towers.
Despite the challenging market conditions caused by Covid-19, the Arla Foods brand has continued to grow and there has been no drop-off in production levels.
Arla partnered with a supplier in 2017 to reduce its water consumption by 700,000m3 – the business plan says:
“ It aims to consistently reduce energy and water consumption by 3% annually. It considers this will be achieved through adopting environmentally friendly technologies and reusing water.”
“Arla Foods states it has a requirement to have a clean data set. In order to do this to the highest level, Arla Foods considers that it needs complete visibility of each site’s water consumption and associated costs. It also has responsibilities regarding on-site boreholes and trade effluent discharge.”
According to the dairy company, having a self-supply licence will provide it with the requisite level of visibility, and the data and control it needs to focus and deliver on its strategy of protecting the environment and safeguarding its business from water scarcity.
In order to facilitate the application, Arla Foods has now entered into a partnership agreement with Waterscan to take on the role and responsibilities for the retail functions, including meter reading, Central Market Operating System transactions, wholesaler management and finding further water efficiency savings.
The partnership will take the form of a contractual agreement between the parties and will be submitted as part of the licence process.
Deadline to submit representations or objections with respect to the application to Ofwat is 24th November 2020.
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