Dairy Crest completes purchase of Express Dairies

Dairy Crest has completed the purchase of Express Dairies from Arla Food’s following the Office of Fair Trading’s decision not to refer the sale to the Competition Commission.

The £33m deal has created the UK’s leading doorstep and middle-ground business, with two million customers.

Express Dairies has 77 distribution depots, dairies in Liverpool and Nottingham, 1850 employees and distributes about 390m litres of milk a year.

Dairy Crest said the acquisition would create “significant synergies” which are expected to peak at about £9m in 2008/09.