Britain’s largest cheese manufacturer Arla is celebrating the official opening of a new state-of-the art facility for cheese storage and maturation as part of its long-term strategy to champion British dairy. 

Arla wants to grow its business by a third by 2020 and the new facility is part of continued strengthening of company operations. 

Cheese from Taw Valley, Llandyrnog and Lockerbie will now go to the purpose built facility in Shropshire and once matured will then be moved to the nearby cutting and packing Arla site in Oswestry before being dispatched to retailers. 

This brings operations for storage under one roof as previously cheese were stored and matured at several different locations. 

Storage and distribution company Grocontinental built the facility and will manage it after initially signing a long-term contract around this time last year. 

The new 32,000 pallet chilled store was officially opened by Michiel de Jonge, senior vice president of Arla Global Logistics and Ray Grocott, chairman of Grocontinental recently. It features high density racking with dedicated cheese grading facilities. 

“Arla has committed to grow its UK business by nearly a third by 2020, as part of the company’s global strategy for growth and to position Arla as the champion of British dairy. The decision to consolidate the maturation facilities from three of our creameries into one fantastic facility reflects how we are investing for the future to ensure quality, competitiveness and economies of scale,” says Arla Foods UK Logistics vice president, Ian Brown.