Wiseman on the attack

By Farmers Weekly staff

ROBERT Wiseman Dairies believes the Competition Commission inquiry into fresh milk supply to the middle market in Scotland is a direct result of other dairy firms trying to undermine its expansion plans further south.

Alan Wiseman, chairman, said: “We are confident that the Competition Commission will find that Wiseman has not behaved in an anti-competitive way, but merely responded commercially to competitor activity which, we believe, represents an attempt to deter us from our expansion in England.”

North of the border, Wiseman, which controls about 70% of the Scottish milk market, has been locked in a price battle with Express Dairies.

But he insisted that the diversionary tactics would not work. Wiseman opened its Manchester dairy in 1995, now processing 320m litres of milk a year.

It intends to build a 400m-litre-a-year plant in Droitwich, near Birmingham, which should be operational by next spring.

• Scots milk probe in the news, FWi, 04 February, 2000
• Competition probe into Wiseman, FWi, 28 January, 2000