The opening of the new dairy by Robert Wiseman at Droitwich is but one more step towards the company becoming a national distributor of milk to supermarkets. Wiseman has become the second biggest supplier of milk to supermarkets in Great Britain by moving steadily southwards, first with a new dairy in Manchester in 1995 and now with a custom built £35m dairy at Droitwich. Building up a viable new dairy from scratch faces two major hurdles; getting a supply of milk for processing and finding sufficient new markets to use the plant fully. Initially, Wiseman will transfer some supermarket business from Manchester but extra business is essential. Other major suppliers of supermarket milk are Arla Foods, Express Dairies and Dairy Crest and some or all will lose out if Wiseman is to fill the new capacity. So far Wiseman has succeeded in building new capacity and filling it with viable business while other dairy companies complain of overcapacity. Droitwich will provide a severe test of whether Wiseman can keep ahead of the crowd. - The Milk Group has raised the price of a standard litre to 20.65p, up 1.8p per litre, taking the group's cumulative increase since September to 3.95p. {{M/E CANNED GOODS }}

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