{{Short description|Dairy company in the United Kingdom}} {{More citations needed|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox company | name = Milk Link Ltd | logo = | caption = | type = Co-operative (Private Limited with share capital 04427868) | traded_as = | genre = <!-- Only used with media and publishing companies --> | fate = merger with Arla Foods | predecessor = Milk Marque (indirectly) | successor = | foundation = {{Start date|2000|04|30}} | founder = | defunct = {{End date|2012}} | location = 3120 Great Western Court, Hunts Ground Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 8HP | locations = | area_served = UK | key_people = Neil Kennedy<br><small>Chief Executive</small> | industry = Dairy | products = Milk, cheese | services = | revenue = £586 million (2010/11) | operating_income = | net_income = £15.1 million<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8564853/Dairy-co-operative-Milk-Links-profits-soar.html ''Telegraph'' May 2011]</ref> | aum = <!-- Only used with financial services companies --> | assets = | equity = | owner = British Farmers Community | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = Milk Link, Cheese<br>Milk Link, Milk | subsid = | homepage = {{URL|http://www.milklink.com}} | footnotes = }}

'''Milk Link''' was a large dairy company in the United Kingdom. It was the UK's largest dairy cooperative and the UK's largest producer of cheese. In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.

==History== It was formed in April 2000 as one of three successor co-operatives to Milk Marque. Milk Marque was broken up after the Competition Commission queried how it set milk prices.

In July 2002, the company bought the Crediton and Kirkcudbright creameries from Express Dairies for £33.1 million, both of which make UHT milk. It also bought out the 50% of joint-venture partner Express Dairies in the creamery at Frome. The Crediton operations were later sold in a management buyout.

In February 2004 it set up The Cheese Company with Kilkenny-based Glanbia, which had four cheese production sites and a packing facility supplying major retailers in the UK, in which it took a 75% stake. In December 2006 it bought out Glanbia for £47.2 million.

In July 2005 it closed a site at Sible Hedingham.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/4679509.stm Essex site July 2005]</ref>

From October 2007<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7028043.stm Merger October 2007]</ref> to February 2008<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/7228303.stm Merger February 2008]</ref> there were talks to merge with First Milk.

In August 2011 it split into two divisions named 'Milk Link, Cheese' and 'Milk Link, Milk'.<ref>[http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Business-News/Milk-Link-restructures-business Food Manufacture August 2011]</ref>

In September 2011 it announced that it would increase the size of the Lockerbie creamery by 50% to produce 37,000 tonnes of cheese a year, into a UK market which consumes 600,000 tonnes of cheese a year.

In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.

==Products== Each year it handles around 1.5 billion litres of milk.

It makes the chocolate-flavoured milk under licence for the ''Mars'' and ''Galaxy'' brand.

===Cheeses=== * Cheddar * Stilton * Cheshire * Red Leicester * Cheshire * Double Gloucester * Lancashire * Wensleydale * Caerphilly * Cornish Brie * Cornish Camembert * Shropshire Blue

It exports cheese to 19 countries.

[[Image:North Tawton, Taw Valley Creamery - geograph.org.uk - 335844.jpg|thumb|right|Taw Valley Creamery at North Tawton ]]

==Structure== ===Creameries=== * Crediton Dairy - sold April 2013 in a management buyout which trades as Crediton Dairy Limited. * Kirkcudbright * Llandyrnog, north Wales (Now mothballed) * Lockerbie (cheddar cheese) - the largest dairy plant in Scotland, off the A709 near the River Annan * Melton Mowbray * Taw Valley Creamery<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040318062109/http://www.tawvalleycheese.co.uk/ Taw Valley Creamery]</ref> * Trevarrian

==See also== * First Milk, a Scottish dairy co-operative

thumb|right|Lockerbie Creamery, formerly owned by The Cheese Company before 2007

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.milklinkfoodservice.co.uk/default.aspx Milk Link Foodservice] * [http://www.britishcheese.com/members/milklink-43 British Cheese Board]

===Video clips=== * [https://www.youtube.com/user/MilkLinkLtd Milk Link YouTube channel] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5gQcJ9fe9w Corporate video]

===News items=== * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-15843985 Lockerbie plant in November 2011] * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-15096676 Lockerbie expansion in September 2011] * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_east/8330161.stm North Wales cheese plant in October 2009] * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/8094677.stm Buying north Wales cheese plant in June 2009] * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8047435.stm Plans to close Scottish dairy in May 2009]

Category:Dairy products companies of the United Kingdom Category:Co-operatives in the United Kingdom Category:Food and drink companies established in 2000 Category:2000 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:South Gloucestershire District Category:Companies based in Gloucestershire