Dairy Crest surged 23.6 to 372.6p after Germany's Theo Mueller Group, which makes M�ller yoghurts, said it had acquired a 3pc stake in the London-listed company. The move triggered speculation the secretive German dairy giant may be lining up a bid for Dairy Crest.

Damian McNeela, an analyst at Panmure Gordon, told Bloomberg: "This indicates that Mueller may make a formal offer for Dairy Crest � they might be looking to widen their product base in the UK".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/marketreport/8033253/Vedanta-Resources-hit-by-Indian-copper-mine-closure.html

Interim Results.

- higher profits in Spreads and Cheese offsetting lower Dairies profits
- adjusted basic earnings per share up 16% helped by lower effective tax rate
-- On track with efficiency savings
- Annual efficiency savings of GBP20 million help offset higher input costs
-- Continuing growth in branded sales
- sales of five key brands up 5% in aggregate
- strong performance from St Hubert in France
- increased selling prices also helped offset higher input costs
- four new branded ranges launched
- milk&more weekly sales up to GBP1.2 million
- branded food business MH Foods acquired for GBP12.3 million (net of cash)
-- Debt refinancing complete
- bank funding in place through to 2016

2 February 2012

Dairy Crest Group plc ("Dairy Crest")

Interim Management Statement

Dairy Crest, the UK's leading dairy foods company, is issuing the following Interim Management Statement for the nine months ended 31 December 2011.

Dairy Crest has coped well in a challenging business environment and overall trading remains in line with our expectations. This demonstrates the benefits of our broadly based business. Group sales in the first nine months of the year have increased by 2% over last year on a like for like basis. This excludes the effect of the disposal of our majority stake in Wexford Creamery Limited.

We continue to focus on controlling our costs and growing added value sales. We remain on track to deliver our targeted annual cost savings of GBP20 million this year. Third quarter sales of our five key brands (Cathedral City, Country Life, St Hubert Omega 3, Clover and Frijj) are up 8% compared to last year, leading to value growth for the first nine months of the year of 6%.

The four new products that we launched last autumn have good customer listings and sales are building satisfactorily.

Foods trading strongly

Our Foods business has traded strongly. In the UK our three key Foods brands (Cathedral City, Country Life, and Clover) performed well over the third quarter, boosted by a strong marketing programme involving both TV advertising and promotions. St Hubert, our French spreads business, has had a very strong quarter and has again increased its market share.

Dairies driving efficiencies but trading difficult

Trading remains difficult in our Dairies business where a combination of high milk purchase prices and lower cream realisations is adversely affecting profitability. Our focus remains on reducing the cost base as the best way to Restore long-term profitability and our three year investment programme is on track. We also aim to increase added value sales in this business and Frijj, milk bag and milk&more sales have continued to grow.

Cash management

We remain focussed on cash management and we expect our net debt at 31 March 2012 to be below that at 30 September 2011. This is in line with the usual seasonal trends. We are committed to further reductions in the longer term.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, commented:

"Dairy Crest has coped well in a challenging business environment and overall trading remains in line with our expectations this year. Although we remain cautious about the economic environment we continue to manage the business proactively to meet the challenges we face."

Dairy Crest expects to issue its full-year trading update on 29 March 2012 and its Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 March 2012 on 24 May 2012

RNS Number : 2806X

Dairy Crest Group PLC

13 February 2012

13(th) February 2012

Dairy Crest Group plc ("Dairy Crest") and Quadra Foods Limited

On 2(nd) February 2012 Dairy Crest issued an Interim Management Statement in which it confirmed that overall trading was in line with its expectations. Its underlying trading has continued to be in line with expectations since that date.

Dairy Crest wishes to inform the market that a customer, Quadra Foods Limited ('Quadra'), has called in Administrators. As a result Dairy Crest anticipates it will increase its bad debt provision by up to GBP4 million. This is the total debt owed to us by Quadra although we are looking at several options to reduce the amount involved.

We expect to treat any charge as an exceptional item in 2011/12 and as such it will not impact on our dividend considerations. Dairy Crest has annual sales of GBP1.6 billion and this is an isolated incident. It will have no material effect on our year end borrowings.

Dairy Crest Group plc ("Dairy Crest") announces strategic review of its French branded spreads business ("St Hubert")

Dairy Crest, the UK's leading dairy foods company, today announces that it is to commence a strategic review of its French branded spreads business. The review will evaluate all possible options available to Dairy Crest to maximise shareholder value, including a potential divestment of St Hubert.

Might see a bit of a recovery in this one, skinny, though they must have been disappointed that Müller preferred to buy out Robert Wiseman Dairies. Competition can only increase with their huge distribution machine grinding away and eating away at DCG margins. Not one I would be happy holding long term as they are mired in debt and by the look of it their credit control is also suspect (£4m arrears from one customer!). Still, 380p looks achievable, so long as we don't see a big downturn in the market over the summer months.

Agreed Harry - I have held in the past - yield 5.96% and ex dividend in June coupled with those magic words - "The review will evaluate all possible options available to Dairy Crest to maximise shareholder value".

Stopped for +10 (SB).

Hmmm - typical.

Pre-close Trading Update.

Update on Dairy Crest's Dairies business


The Board of Dairy Crest is today announcing a proposal to consult on the closure of two dairies. This is part of its long term plan to reduce costs and sustain profitability in an extremely challenging market environment for its liquid milk business.

The Board is also reporting an improved year-end net debt position.

Final Results.

Financial Highlights

· Total Revenue up 2%
o Strong growth in Foods (revenue +10%), supported by continued progress from key brands
o More focused Dairies business (revenue -2%), as action taken to improve customer mix

· Adjusted profit before tax maintained in challenging trading conditions

· Exceptional non-cash impairment charges in Dairies of £81.7 million leads to a reported loss

· Key net debt to EBITDA ratio at 2.2 well within covenant of 3.5

· Proposed final dividend up 4% at 14.7p per share, demonstrating a commitment to progressive dividend policy

Operating Highlights

· Sales of five key brands up 11%
o Record market shares for Cathedral City and St Hubert in fourth quarter

· Innovation driving added value sales and efficiencies
o 10% of sales now derived from products and services developed in the last three years, such as Chedds and Frijj the Incredible
o Milk&more weekly sales up to £1.2 million

· Input cost increases of around £80 million recovered through cost savings and selling price increases

· £22 million annualised cost savings delivered during the year, with a further £20 million identified for 2012/13

· Business In The Community gold award reflects strong commitment to Corporate Responsibility

Strategic highlights

· Strategic review of French Spreads business progressing

· Decisive steps taken since year end to return Dairies business to a satisfactory level of profitability in the medium term

· Branded food acquisition, MH Foods, widened product portfolio

Ex dividend on 20th (payable 2nd August). 14.70p (6.21% yield).

Proposed disposal of St Hubert

Proposed disposal of its French branded spreads business, St Hubert SAS ("St Hubert")

Overview

Dairy Crest, the UK's leading dairy foods company, today announces that it has received a binding offer from Montagu Private Equity SAS regarding the proposed disposal of the entire issued share capital of St Hubert for a consideration of €430 million (£3441 million) payable in cash (the "Transaction").

AGM and Interim Management Statement

Trading in line with expectations and St Hubert sale creates opportunities

Dairy Crest's overall trading in the first quarter has been challenging, especially in our Dairies business. However our expectations for the full year remain unchanged. Our financial position remains in line with our expectations.

As expected it has been a difficult quarter for our Dairies business, along with the rest of the sector. However, we have taken decisive steps to return it to a satisfactory level of profitability. We have set a medium term target of 3% return on sales and are making progress towards it. Plans to close two dairies announced in April are on schedule and resulting capacity reductions are allowing us to improve selling prices in parts of this business. Lower returns from commodity cream markets have also led us to announce milk purchase price cuts. Regrettably these cuts have put pressure on our supplying farmers and we are working with them on plans to reduce the impact of these cuts. These plans include the early adoption of a new code of practice in relation to our milk supply contracts.

Trading Update

Dairy Crest is issuing the following pre-close trading update for the six months ending 30 September 2012 ahead of announcing its Interim Results on 8 November 2012.

Trading in the first half of the year has remained challenging and our profits, having adjusted for the disposal of our French spreads business, St Hubert, will be lower than the same period last year. However, our profit expectations for the full year ending 31 March 2013 remain unchanged.

Strong momentum in Brands

Our four key UK brands (Cathedral City, Country Life, Clover and Frijj) have continued to perform strongly in the first half. Increased marketing expenditure behind these brands is supporting this growth. All four have been advertised on television in the period - the first time that has ever happened.

Innovation remains a focus in our ongoing drive for added value sales. For example, Chedds, natural cheese for children (whose annual retail sales now exceed £7 million), Frijj Incredibles and Cathedral City Selections are all performing strongly. Further innovations are planned for the second half, including a long-life variant of Frijj. This is aimed at the convenience market and provides a significant opportunity for further growth.

As part of our continued drive to grow and improve efficiency across our business, we have decided to consult with employees on plans to consolidate our spreads production into a single UK location, our existing facility at Kirkby, Merseyside. As a result of the consolidation our site in Crudgington, Shropshire, will potentially close in 2014.

Decisive action in Dairies

Our Dairies business has been facing unprecedented market conditions but we remain focused on achieving a 3% return on sales in this business in the medium term. We continue to take a number of decisive actions to achieve this, including implementing milk selling price increases, closing our Aintree creamery, consolidating milk rounds to allow the closure of 23 depots in the six months and reducing overheads. Plans are on track to close our Fenstanton dairy, as previously announced, this autumn.

We increased the price we pay our non-aligned supplier farmers for milk by 1.85 pence per litre from 1 October 2011, but a steep fall in cream prices led to a price reduction of 2 pence per litre from 1 May 2012. A second planned reduction, due to take place on 1 August 2012 was postponed while we negotiated price increases with our customers and this had a small adverse effect on profits in the period.

We have today announced higher farmgate milk prices for our suppliers. These reflect the expectations of improving returns from commodity markets and higher selling prices.

Improved financial position

Following the sale of St Hubert, our financial position is much improved. We received €430 million on 28 August 2012 which has been used in part to repay drawdowns from our revolving credit facility. The balance has been placed on short-term deposits, with the position for the longer term currently under review. Our aim in deploying cash will be to preserve the Group's capacity to make acquisitions, while providing appropriate long-term funding for the pension fund and driving towards a more efficient debt structure.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive, commented: 'We are pleased with our first half performance despite the significant pressures on our business. Although we expect these to continue into the second half our first half performance together with our plans for the second half means that our profit expectations for the full year remain unchanged. At the same time we have continued to move the business forward and the proceeds from the sale of St Hubert leave us much stronger financially.'

Dairy Crest is hosting a visit for analysts and investors at its Kirkby Spreads manufacturing facility on the afternoon of Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 September. The management team will make presentations on our Spreads and Dairies Businesses, as well as the Group's sales and marketing activities. These will be made available on Dairy Crest's website at www.dairycrest.co.uk/investors. No material new information will be disclosed in these presentations.

Up nicely with a good divi. +6% on 4-1-2013 I think.

Interim Management Statement


Half year ended 30 September



· Much improved financial position following successful disposal of St Hubert

- St Hubert sold for €430 million, generating a post-tax profit on sale of £47.7 million
- Balance sheet transformed. Net debt: EBITDA ratio 0.7x (2011: 2.4x)
- Well placed to make targeted, value-enhancing acquisitions in the UK

· Strong performance from key brands and new products

- UK Spreads and Cheese sales jointly up 3%
- Four key brands together recorded double digit volume and value growth
- New products, Chedds and FRijj the Incredible, now firmly established
- Further innovation planned for second half
- Increased A&P investment to maintain momentum - all four brands on television in the period

· Accelerated efficiency cost savings

- Ongoing costs discipline throughout business
- Annual cost savings ahead of £20 million target

· Dairies profits lower in continuing difficult trading environment

- Sales down 11% in line with strategy to reduce exposure to this sector
- Milk price support for supplying farmers in challenging times
- On track with clear plan to restore 3% return on sales in the medium term

Dairy Crest profit hurt by milk business
Thu 08 Nov 2012

DCG - Dairy Crest Group



LONDON (SHARECAST) - Cathedral City cheese maker Dairy Crest said first half profits fell 16 per cent as its milk business continues to struggle.

The group said adjusted pre-tax profit fell to £19.1m for the six months ended September 30th from £22.7m the same time a year earlier. Revenue for the period fell to £688.2m from £739.1m before.

Sales of its four key brands Cathedral City, Country Life, Clover and Frijj rose 11% in the half-year period.

However its dairies business suffered lower profits amid a difficult trading environment. Sales were down 11% in line with strategy to reduce exposure to this sector.

Milk producers such as Dairy Crest are struggling to give farmers better prices while supermarkets seek lower prices in a competitive market.

Dairy Crest said it is on track with a plan to restore 3% return on sales in the medium term.

Chief Executive Mark Allen commented: "Dairy Crest has had a busy first six months as we continued to navigate a challenging trading environment. The decisive actions we have taken during the period leave us well placed as we move forward."

Following the sale of St Hubert, the group said it has a more focused business and a much stronger balance sheet. "We now have the ability to make UK acquisitions," it added.

Despite the challenging environment, Dairy Crest said it continues to grow its key brands while reducing its cost base. Improvements to the dairies business are expected to improve future profitability.

"We remain confident that full year performance will be in line with our expectations."

Half year net debt was significantly reduced to £75.8m from £365.3m previously.

The interim dividend has been held at 5.7p.

Trying the 360 level again.

Milk price increases from Dairy Crest

Looking to close above £4.