New venture to stimulate growth

A welcome increase in whey supplies will meet the growing demand for milk-based ingredients

A new joint venture in Germany will significantly increase supplies of high-quality whey to Arla Foods Ingredients by the end of next year.
With the extra whey volume, the company will secure its ability to meet fast-growing global demand for natural, milk-based ingredients.
“International food manufacturers have recognised the value-adding potential of functional and nutritional ingredients produced from whey. This joint venture will enable us to overcome the current raw material shortage, created by the rapid rise in demand for our products,” says Henrik Andersen, CEO.
Arla Foods Ingredients has signed the joint venture agreement with DMK, soon to become Germany’s largest dairy company on completion of the coming merger between Nordmilch and Humana.
New processing plant
The partners will invest a total of EUR 44 million in the new venture, called ArNoCo GmbH & Co. KG. Of this, EUR 35 million will go into a new whey processing facility on the site of DMK’s cheese plant in Nordhackstedt, North Germany. Whey processing is scheduled to begin at the end of 2012.
The remaining EUR 9 million will be channelled into an expansion of Arla Foods Ingredients’ whey processing plant in Nr. Vium, Denmark.
The joint venture is subject to the approval of the European competition authorities.