The development comes after the companies announced their business partnership in July.
The UK organic cheese category is under performing relative to overall dairy, with just 1% market share within cheese, compared to 5% in liquid milk and 8.5% in yogurt, for example. This shortfall in potential can be attributed to supply chain issues such as low repeat purchase, sporadic supply and a relatively costly supply chain.
“This collaboration will create a solid platform to grow sales of organic dairy products and allow it to reach its potential in a growing world market, now and post-Brexit,” said Rich Clothier, managing director at Wyke Farms.
‘Growing organic opportunities’
OMSCo’s managing director Richard Hampton said, “The partnership, within which we both have an equal share, provides us with a focus to grow organic dairy opportunities together.
“The launch of our business-to-business brand, ‘The British Organic Dairy Company’, will enable us to facilitate the sales and marketing of our products under a joint brand identity.”
He said OMSCo already produces organic milk to specific export standards and already has EU, USDA and Chinese certification. The companies said this will allow them to capitalize on the growth of the organic dairy industry on a global scale with branded and own-label products.
The creation of The British Organic Dairy Company means that Wyke Farms will source all the milk requirements for organic cheese production from OMSCo, whilst OMSCo will increase its range of specialist organic cheese made by Wyke Farms for export markets, and also take a share in the ownership of bulk cheddar stocks for a proportion of domestic and export sales.