Latest news with #FirstMilk
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Former Samworth Brothers CEO Hugo Mahoney joins First Milk as chair
Hugo Mahoney, the former CEO of UK pasty maker Samworth Brothers, is set to join local dairy cooperative First Milk as chairman. Mahoney will take on the role on 3 November, when current chair Chris Thomas steps down as his three-year maximum term comes to an end. Before his time as CEO of Ginsters brand owner Samworth Brothers, Mahoney was the chief commercial officer at foodservice company Brakes. He has also held executive positions at Sage and LexisNexis. Mahoney has 'a deep understanding of customers, supply chains and distribution in the UK and international markets', farmer-owned co-op First Milk, which is based in Glasgow, said in a statement. Mahoney commented: 'Nutritious, tasty dairy products are an essential part of many people's diets and First Milk is making an important contribution to building a high quality, resilient and sustainable UK dairy supply chain with the farming community at its heart. 'I am looking forward to working on behalf of our members with my new colleagues to build on this progression into the future.' First Milk has expanded through M&A, snapping up UK-based BV Dairy in 2024. Founded in 1958, BV Dairy (Blackmore Vale Farm Cream), based in Dorset in southern England, makes a range of chilled dairy products for food manufacturers, hospitality and foodservice providers. It also offers contract manufacturing services. While Mahoney's appointment as chair has been approved by First Milk's board and council members, it needs to be ratified at the AGM on 3 November. Mike Smith, First Milk's vice chairman, added: 'We are delighted to have appointed Hugo to lead the board and work alongside our CEO, Shelagh Hancock. "His understanding of the opportunities for UK food and farming businesses at home and abroad, together with the challenges that the UK farming and food sectors are facing into is first class. 'When you back this up with his broader experience of leading in different sectors, business models and cultures it makes him a great fit for the future development of our co-operative.' Mahoney's appointment follows a warning this week from another dairy co-op, Arla Foods, which called for the UK government's support to address a protracted shortage of skilled farm workers. If the gaps are not filled, the country's food security is at risk, while consumers face the potential of higher prices and even product shortages, Arla claimed. "Former Samworth Brothers CEO Hugo Mahoney joins First Milk as chair" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Daily Mirror
06-08-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
The local link to your latte – how one popular coffee brand benefits from British milk
'I love mornings,' says 36-year-old dairy farmer Jonny Slack of Dolphenby Farm in Cumbria, where he looks after some 500 cows. 'On a normal day, it's a five o'clock start, and the first job is always to milk the cows and make sure they're all fed and happy. That takes until about 8am, and then we'll go and grab some breakfast.' Dolphenby supplies milk for Nestlé's Nescafé range of frothy coffees, which are produced just 20 miles down the road at its Dalston factory. The secret to helping cows produce high-quality milk lies in high-quality grass and soil, Jonny explains. 'One thing we're really good at in Cumbria is growing grass, and we let our cows graze on it for as long in the year as we can.' Jonny and his co-manager on the farm, Robert Craig, credit much of their success to their 21-year relationship with Nestlé and First Milk, a British farmer-owned dairy co-operative. 'The relationship between First Milk and Nestlé is unique,' says Robert. 'It's a real partnership, and it's really well funded. They have been helping us to move in a regenerative direction.' Robert explains that, in recent years, Dolphenby has been especially focused on soil health and the biodiversity in it, relying less on chemical fertilisers. 'I think regenerative farming is so important,' adds Jonny. 'The whole cycle is important to us – farming alongside nature, looking after the soil, which then looks after the cows and looks after the people. 'The cows have been here on and off for hundreds of years. They've shaped the local landscape, really. 'We talk about locally produced food. Well, here, we're locally producing food for our cows to locally produce milk for the nation.' While Robert comes from a long line of farmers ('I'm probably the fifth or sixth generation'), Jonny is unusual in the industry in not coming from a farming family – although it looks like he's building a farming dynasty of his own. Starting out as a cowman aged 16, Jonny worked his way up to become a stakeholder in Dolphenby, where he now lives with his wife, Lucy, and their three-year-old daughter, Neave. 'There's no better place for a child to grow up,' Jonny says. 'My daughter has just got a couple of pet sheep for her birthday, and she loves feeding the calves, playing in mud puddles and whatever else.' Lucy has a full-time job off the farm, but Jonny says he couldn't do what he does without her. 'She is always there for help and advice,' he says. 'Farming is a family business. It's not nine to five – everybody has to be on board with it.' So, the next time you're sipping your morning Nescafé Latte, you can do so in the knowledge that the milk in it comes from right here in the UK – and, equally importantly, from healthy cows grazed on nutrient-rich soil.
The Independent
23-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Field-by-field data helping to measure regenerative impact on dairy farms
Pioneering field-by-field data has been helping dairy farmers measure the real-world impact of regenerative farming as they work to roll out greener methods. Nestle has been working with First Milk, a farmer-owned dairy co-operative in Ayrshire and Cumbria that supplies milk for products like KitKats and Nescafe. The consumer giant pays farmers bonuses for taking measures to protect and enhance the natural assets on their land, such as rotational grazing, restoring hedgerows, cutting down herbicide use, enriching the lives of cows, promoting biodiversity and engaging with communities. In efforts to monitor the real-world impact of these changes, First Milk has been gathering data of what is happening on every single field managed by 80 farmers in the regenerative programme for the last few years. The data set, thought to be the first of its kind on this scale, contains detailed information on what is going on in each field on every farm. This includes the number of hedgerows, whether multi-species pastures have been planted, where cows are rotationally grazing and how watercourses are being protected. The co-operative can then monitor farmers' regenerative journeys and work with them on where new actions could be taken depending on their land. The data also aims to track which regenerative interventions are – and are not – working as farmers carry out worm counts or test water holding capacity and levels of carbon in the soil. Ashley Swan, commercial executive at First Milk, said: 'We needed a lot of data to support this and we really needed to start understanding every single thing about the farms with an easy input for farmers. 'Without that detail, we don't know whether we're going in the right direction or not.' The co-operative claims to be the first to develop a system that has such a level of data in the UK. 'We started from scratch,' Ms Swan said. 'There wasn't a system out there. I don't think the supply chain or the processor has ever asked a farmer for that level of detail before.' The co-operative is also gathering data on the amount of carbon measured in the soil on farms, starting with baseline measurements taken by the firm Agricarbon in 2021 – the first-of-its-kind soil carbon capture project. Agricarbon will soon be measuring soil carbon levels on the farms again to see how planting a mixture of grasses, broadleaves and clovers on fields has helped alter CO2 levels over time. 'It's the density and quality of that baseline data we can really rely on to be accurate,' Ms Swan said. The programme has not come without challenges, such as upfront costs, financial risk and fostering a huge culture shift among all stakeholders in the supply chain. For a sector that has been crippled by rising costs, increasingly tight margins, tough market conditions and climate change, sharing the risk across the supply chain has been critical for farmers rolling out the regenerative measures. James Smith, a farmer at Cotehill Farm in Brampton Cumbria, said: 'This is where Nestle comes in. 'We have to have a bit of faith that this science is going to work because we might go to the cost of planting this and it might take a year to see the full benefits as we switch from a more conventional (method of) spreading a lot chemical fertiliser to a lower input, more natural fertiliser. 'In that time you might see a bit of a loss in performance of the land, so if we have the support of Nestle it's really useful to us to know they're helping us on that journey, they're sharing the risk.' Trust between supply farmers and Nestle has been built over the long term after decades of its presence in the region. The nearby factory in Dalston processes an estimated 1% of UK milk production. Matt Ryan, regeneration lead at Nestle UK & Ireland, said: 'If we want those factories to continue to be there and to continue to be as productive as they are now, we need to be thinking about the future.' To do this, Mr Ryan said the company is careful not to prescribe farmers with set sweeping measures they must take all at once. The team instead wants to be 'nudging' its suppliers towards less impactful practices, he said. Mr Ryan said: 'It's an encouragement I suppose, a direction of travel. 'A lot of these things are new and there's a risk associated with implementing some of these practices. So, that's where we see our role as supporting through that transition.' Mr Smith said that while the programme provides a baseline level of practices for farmers to role out, its flexibility is also crucial. 'You can pick which options suit your farm,' he said, adding that Cotehill is a grazing farm so they need to stagger any reseeding of fields as cows continue to pasture. In terms of keeping Nestle executives on board, Mr Ryan said visits to farms are a key part of driving that culture shift and showing the programme's potential to contribute towards the firm's science-based climate targets. He added: 'From our side, (it's about) getting our senior leaders who sign the cheques for this big programme to understand that this isn't a big red button that you press and everything's fixed. 'A mindset shift from a senior management perspective is really important. 'You're working with nature, you've got a target you've set at the end of your commitment. The road to that commitment to that target is going to be a bit rocky.'
