Müller’s Richard Williams on the yoghurt giant’s growth plans

Supermarket fridges are getting more crowded with health claims by the week, with products promising everything from high-protein and gut-friendly to natural and GLP-1 proof. But only one category can chase all these trends at once, says Müller Yoghurts & Desserts CEO Richard Williams: Dairy.

The sector is “at the intersection of many of the consumer needs we’re seeing at the moment”, he argues. “Whether it’s protein, gut health, UPF or the rise of GLP-1, dairy is fundamentally well positioned,” he adds.

And growth is following. The yoghurt category is in a period of significant expansion, with value sales up 10.3% last year alone [NIQ 52 w/e 6 September 2025]. “It’s very dynamic,” he says, and is “outperforming other segments”.

Much of this comes down to how broad the category is, covering everything from indulgence to functional health. “It’s very rare that one category can address all these needs,” he says.

His goal, he adds, is to get a “Müller in every fridge”, which means “we need to make sure we are catering to as many broad needs and occasions as we can”.

Indulgence is still doing well – take Müller Bliss, which saw volumes grow 48.8% last year – much of it driven by health segments. Protein, natural and kefir yoghurt contribute to 70% of the category’s growth, and Müller is the biggest brand driving it.

The brand’s collaboration with Myprotein has been a highly successful contributor to that success. The co-branded shakes and yoghurts brought in £10.3m in their first seven months on the market [NIQ 52 w/e 27 December 2025] and Williams says the business anticipates £50m of sales from the range this year.

This “very intentional 50-50 partnership” has been so successful because it combines Myprotein’s “credibility as the leading sports nutrition brand” with Müller’s “reassurance around taste and value, which have in the past been some of the barriers to broader adoption of this segment”.

The protein segment is still growing at around 25% a year, according to Williams, who says data suggests the category will be worth almost £750m by the end of the year. And there is still room for growth, he argues, through a “mainstreaming” of the trend.

“There’s still only about one in four consumers who buy into this segment today,” he explains. “I think it will continue to evolve as the benefits of protein become broader, and we’re seeing that now evolving from just the fitness enthusiasts to consumers looking for products that can improve their overall wellbeing.”

Another area of opportunity is in kefir and natural yoghurt – an area Williams says the business was “missing out on” when he joined two years ago after a career spent largely in dairy.

To fill that gap, Müller acquired challenger brand Biotiful last year for more than £100m. “It was an incredibly complementary and synergistic business versus our existing portfolio,” he says. “It spent a lot of time pioneering the category and, with that, built credibility and authenticity with the consumer.”

In the year before its acquisition, Biotiful’s turnover increased by 44% to £46.8m in the 12 months to 31 March 2025, with operating profit more than doubling from £2.3m to £4.8m. The brand has been kept purposefully separate, Williams says, so the team can “focus on continuing to drive growth”, while Müller provides the scale and capability behind it – growth he calls “absolutely phenomenal” since the acquisition.

Not every part of the Müller portfolio has benefited from the shift towards natural and functional dairy. Müller Light, Williams admits, has been “squeezed as other areas grow”.

It has been in decline for a number of years – down 6.1% according to The Grocer’s Top Products Report 2025, despite a 2024 relaunch. Rivals haven’t been spared either: Danone’s Light & Free has suffered from the shift “away from restriction and more to function”.

A ‘unique need’

Still, Williams argues the low-fat segment – worth £100m – “fills a very unique need as a permissible indulgence, that hit of flavour and taste for low calorie”.

“It is still very much a need for many consumers who are managing their weight even today,” he adds.

That need, though, is being reshaped by a much bigger force than changing tastes. According to Worldpanel, the proportion of households with a GLP-1 user has nearly tripled over the past two years to 6.3%. That is having a material impact on users’ grocery bills, cutting £780m off annual spend.

“Whether it’s protein, gut health, UPF or the rise of GLP-1, dairy is fundamentally well positioned”

Richard Williams

It’s a trend that should probably unsettle a business built partly on indulgence and a positioning around low-fat treats. Williams, unsurprisingly, sees opportunity rather than threat.

While it’s a worry for the market as a whole, Williams says dairy is set to benefit from this trend given how “nutritionally dense” it is.

“We’ve got a great foundation,” he says, though there is more work to do to “build portfolios and products that are tailored with the right level of nutrient density to address those consumer needs”. They will evolve, he adds, by looking at other ingredients like fibre and specific vitamins that “can provide added benefits”.

To meet these challenges, the business is investing to match its ambitions: £100m over the past three years to “enable us to bring on additional capacity, additional capability and also make us very resilient as a supplier for our retailers”.

“It’s changing very quickly,” he says. But whether Müller’s bet on sitting at the intersection of every dairy trend at once proves smarter than picking one main area of focus may be the real test of the next few years. For now, at least, Williams is clear: “We’re really excited about the future.”