Sales are Lurpak parent firm Arla were marginally lower than last year amid cost of living crisis

Lurpak parent firm Arla have said that sales were marginally lower last year as shoppers have been buying cheaper own brand labels amid the cost of living crisis.

In the second half of the year the diary giant had more customer buying their brands again.

More than 2,000 British farmers have issued a warning that revenues could fall next year and this could be impacted by a volatile market, Arla has cautioned.

Arla posted revenues of £11.7 billion for 2023 on Tuesday compared to revenues of £11.8 billion in 2022.

UK sales were up by 2.4% in the year to £2.6 billion having slowed from 17.5% the year before due to increased inflation.

Bas Padberg, managing director of Arla Foods UK, said: “As we saw in the first half of 2023, inflationary pressure continued to dominate, however, thanks to the strong execution by our farmer owners, employees and management, Arla has demonstrated its ability to adapt to challenging market conditions.

“As the UK’s largest dairy cooperative and supplier of some of the UKs best loved brands, it’s important that we ease pressures on cash strapped shoppers when we can, as well as returning a fair price to our farmers so we can keep supermarket shelves full.

“Arla’s brand portfolio demonstrated its robustness in volatile conditions, and we made strong recovery in the second half of 2023 with a strategic branded volume growth.”