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

AGM and Interim Management Statement

Dairy Crest, the leading UK-owned dairy foods company, is issuing the following Interim Management Statement for the 3 months ended 30 June 2014 at its Annual General Meeting later today.

Aggregate sales of our four key brands grew by 4% in the period compared to the first quarter of 2013/14. Three of our key brands, Cathedral City, Country Life and FRijj each grew sales by more than 5%. The exception was Clover where sales continued to fall in a difficult spreads market. We expect the performance of this brand to benefit over the remainder of the year from the television advertising that is scheduled for the second quarter. We also remain on target to complete the rationalisation of our spreads and butter manufacturing facilities and close our Crudgington site this year.

One of the elements of our plan to improve the profits in our Dairies operations is to grow FRijj, which is already the market leader in the ready to drink flavoured milk market. FRijj has increased its presence on retailers' shelves in recent months and secured a greater share of display. New coffee flavours are also contributing to its growth.

The second element to our Dairies plan is to reduce our costs. Across the business as a whole we are on target to again reduce our costs by £20 million this year, with Dairies benefitting most. Our focus is on reducing our distribution costs and we have made good progress in the period.

Thirdly, we aim to maximise profits from the sale of surplus properties. As previously reported, in this period we have completed the sale of a redundant depot in Surbiton, Surrey resulting in a profit on disposal of £4.9 million. We now anticipate full year profits from sales of redundant distribution depots will be in the range £10 million to £15 million.

Despite progress with these three elements of our plan, profits in our Dairies product group have remained under pressure as we maintained high milk purchase prices during the quarter despite lower cream revenues. Although we have now reduced the price we pay for milk for Dairies, profits in this product group will be second-half weighted and property profits will make up a larger part of total profits than we originally anticipated.

At the end of the first quarter our financial position remains in line with our expectations and the outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

As announced earlier this month, our £45 million investment to manufacture demineralised whey at Davidstow remains on track and we are working closely with our partner, Fonterra, to maximise the potential returns from both this investment and from the newly announced £20 million investment to manufacture galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS).

Anyone know why this is dropping?

Not sure, but they are back on my list.

Dairy Crest Group plc ("Dairy Crest") appoints new Chairman

The Board of Dairy Crest, the leading UK-owned dairy foods company, announces that Stephen Alexander will become the company's Chairman with immediate effect.

He replaces Anthony Fry, who was taken ill earlier this year. Anthony will leave the Board of Dairy Crest with immediate effect.

Stephen Alexander was appointed as a Non-executive Director in January 2011. He has been Chairman of the Remuneration Committee since May 2012.

Richard Macdonald, who has been Acting Chairman while Anthony has been unable to work, will resume his role as Senior Independent Director.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, said: "It is sad that Anthony will no longer chair the Board. Anthony has had a significant influence on the business since his appointment as a Non-executive Director in 2007, and especially since he became Chairman in 2010. I shall miss working with him."

"Stephen has been a very strong non-Executive and makes an excellent replacement. I am looking forward to working more closely with him."

Stephen Alexander said: "I am delighted to take up the role of Chairman. Dairy Crest is a good business and I look forward to helping to continue to further develop the company."

Dairy Crest expects to issue its half-yearly trading update on 22 September 2014 and its Interim Results for the six months ending 30 September 2014 on 6 November 2014.
-ENDS-

Trading Statement

Dairy Crest is issuing the following pre-close trading update for the six months ending 30 September 2014, ahead of announcing Interim Results on 6 November 2014.

In a challenging trading environment Dairy Crest expects to report overall first half Group profits broadly in line with last year. As previously reported, property profits from the sale of surplus delivery depots will make up a greater proportion of profits than in the same period last year.

more...

Hanworth and Chard facilities

Dairy Crest starts employee consultation at its Hanworth glass bottling dairy and Chard specialist cream potting facility

Dairy Crest is today announcing that it is starting consultation with employees and their representatives regarding the closure of its glass bottling dairy in Hanworth, West London and its specialist cream potting facility in Chard, Somerset.

more...

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 395.50 530.00 480.00 Reiterates

Numis Hold 394.13 409.50 476.00 411.00 Reiterates

StockMarketWire.com
Dairy Crest has agreed to sell the assets of its dairies operations to Müller UK & Ireland Group for £80m payable in cash on completion.

The sale is conditional on the approval of the relevant competition authorities. This process is expected to take several months, during which time Dairy Crest will focus on continuing to provide high levels of service and delivery throughout the supply chain.

It is also conditional on the approval of Dairy Crest's shareholders and employee consultation

StockMarketWire.com
Credit Suisse lifts Dairy Crest to neutral from underperform, target raised from 390p to 485p.

Perhaps the gap isn't going to be filled yet!

Fresh milk contract with Morrisons



Dairy Crest today announces that it has retained its contract to supply fresh milk to Morrisons for a further three years, following a competitive tender process, but that the volumes Morrisons purchases from Dairy Crest will be reduced by around one third from March 2015.

Dairy Crest does not expect this to materially affect its financial results for the year ending 31 March 2015.

In addition to fresh milk Dairy Crest will continue to supply Morrisons with cheese, flavoured milk, butter and spreads.

Dairy Crest will issue its Interim Management Statement for the nine months ended 31 December 2014 on 5 February 2015.

Interim Management Statement

May be sales are flat, which is the reason for the down trend. Is it worth buying at the bottom of this trend?

Looking to fill the gap this time?

Final results for year ended 31 March 2015

Highlights

· Total Product group profits of retained Cheese and Spreads businesses up 19% year on year

· Sale of Dairies operations approved by shareholders; regulatory approval in progress

· Cathedral City brand continues to grow strongly - now Britain's 16th largest grocery brand, accounting for over 50% of total branded retail cheddar sales

· On track to start production of demineralised whey powder and galacto-oligosacharide this year for growing global markets

· Strong Corporate Responsibility commitment maintained - top ranked UK business by BITC for second consecutive year

· Proposed final dividend payment of 15.7p taking full year to 21.7p, up 2%

31.01.18 StockMarketWire.com
Dairy Crest reported total revenue rose 7% for the first nine months of year, while the outlook for the full year remained unchanged.

The rise in revenue for the first nine months of the year compared to the previous year was driven by combined strong performance from the company's key brands such as Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and Frylight.

All of Dairy Crest's spreads brands - Clover, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Willow - continued to gain market share, the company said.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, said:

'We have seen strong growth across our key brands, with Cathedral City, Clover and Frylight performing well and all of our spreads brands increasing market share.'

'I am delighted that Cathedral City Spreadable, one of our more recent innovations, was voted 'Product of the Year 2018' in the cheese category by consumers.'

'We continue to build the customer base for our functional ingredients business and we will talk in greater detail about this in May.'


Peel Hunt today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Dairy Crest Group PLC (LON:DCG) and cut its price target to 650p (from 680p).

StockMarketWire.com
Dairy Crest reported adjusted pre-tax profit rose 3% supported by a 10% jump in revenue despite 'unprecedented' cost inflation in the butters market.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose 3% to £62.3m, but rose 345% to £179.2m, when an exceptional income of £130.9m related to the reduction in pension fund liabilities was included.

The pension fund swung to a surplus on an accounting basis, due largely to the agreed change to the indexation of pensions in payment, the company said.

Group revenue rose 10% to £456.8m as revenue growth was recorded across all parts of the business except the company's "other" segment, which includes third party warehousing revenue.

Cheese revenues were up 4%, and butter revenue rose 25% despite an increase in the cost of milk and butter. The company's Cathedral City brand saw revenues grow by 6%.

'We have delivered a strong performance, broadly maintaining our industry-leading margins against a backdrop of unprecedented cost inflation in the butters market,' Dairy Crest said.

All four of Dairy Crest's spreads brands grew revenues over the year, delivering a combined uplift of 10% compared to the overall spreads market which was flat, according to IRI Kantar data.

The company said it would raise £70m through a share issuance to fund an expansion of its cheese and whey production facilities amid growing demand.

Peel Hunt Buy 508.00 650.00 630.00 Reiterates

Societe Generale Hold 508.00 610.00 530.00 Reiterates

StockMarketWire.com
Dairy Crest said Monday it expected first-half profit and revenue to be ahead of last year driven by strong performance from its Cathedral City cheese and Clover spread brands.

Cathedral City's revenue was expected to deliver good growth against strong volumes a year ago, while Clover as expected to deliver both volume and revenue growth, continuing the positive performance from last year, the company said.

First-half performance would be held back by a reduction in volume and revenue for brand Frylight as unusually hot weather crimped oil usage, though the company said trading had significantly improved in recent weeks.

Dairy Crest also said it continued to restrict Country Life promotional activity as ongoing high butter costs weighed on sales.

Dairy Crest touted several new product releases within the next for months for Cathedral City.

The company maintained its outlook for the full year.

'Our Cathedral City and Clover brands continue to drive the business forward, supported by an exciting pipeline of new product developments,' said Mark Allen, Chief Executive.

' For Cathedral City to be named one of the UK's top ten brands by consumers, alongside John Lewis, Amazon and Ikea, is testament to the power of the UK's favourite cheese brand, and we see good growth potential in the UK and beyond.'

'Our balance sheet is in good shape and we are moving forward with the first phase of the expansion at Davidstow. Our expectations for the full year remain unchanged.'