Arla boosts Scottish presence with depot

Arla Foods has announced plans to increase capacity at its Lockerbie dairy by 40% and to open a new depot in Bellshill, Glasgow.

The company said capacity at Lockerbie needed to be boosted to deal with “growing demand”, with a new depot needed to handle additional milk and product volumes.

Arla Foods vice president for operations Paul Lloyd said the expansion plans were in line with Arla’s growth strategy and that Scotland had been identified as offering strong growth opportunities. “It will establish a strong platform for fresh milk deliveries in Scotland,” he said.

A small number of transport and despatch jobs at Lockerbie “may go” as a result of the new depot, but there could also be additional jobs created in production, he added.

Arla said it planned to open the depot in March, and would ultimately run it with a third party.