Image of Muller employees

Müller Employees

Rural Action, All big ticks

Müller Dairy UK (Ltd)- Education and the Rural Community

Northern Foods Rural Action Award

“Yesterday’s visit was a valuable opportunity to broaden our pupils’ horizons and show them that food doesn’t begin and end in a supermarket”

Mrs Judy Clowes, Chair of GovernorsMount Pleasant Junior School, Shrewsbury

Müller Dairy, Shropshire, is the UK’s leading manufacturer of yogurts and chilled desserts and is one of the most significant employers in the district.

Over 90% of its milk comes from within 30 miles of the dairy, supporting its priority of being a ‘good neighbour’, working hard to be part of the community, rather than apart from it.

A fundamental part of Müller’s CSR strategy is ‘To seek out initiatives that can build upon the local, natural, dairy goodness of our products to deliver sustainable benefits to everyone’.

 

 

 

The Story

Muller Farmer with dairy herd

Müller Dairy’s journey towards sustainability started three years ago when they set out to understand and improve their interaction with the environment and with communities in the rural heartland around the dairy. Müller’s focus has been on education and genuine commitment to their supply chain.

Müller’s aim is to educate, advise and work with their dairy farmers, suppliers and customers to develop sustainable practices and to support the local community by engaging and enabling employees to donate 1 day per year to local community volunteering initiatives.   Projects have included providing Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme training via Farming and Countryside Education for 8 volunteer farmers to host school visits, facilitating and fully funding farm visits for more than 400 school children with the help of 30 employees in 2009, development and funding of National Curriculum materials to support farm and wildlife studies both in the classroom and on-farm,14 business development workshops for Müller’s 163 farmers, the development of an industry-leading foundation degree course (Project Eden) at a rural college to create the best-trained dairy industry practitioners in the country and 25 workshops for over 85 year 11 pupils, delivered by 13 Müller employees to educate young people on career choices and skills.

 

Impact

Social and Environmental Impacts

  • Müller’s 163 dairy farmers receive a fair milk price enabling them to invest in the future
  • Workshops for farmers have strengthened farm businesses equipping them with valuable knowledge, benefiting the community and future generations in farming
  • Focused education and training for hundreds of school children has boosted understanding of rural issues, farming and potential career opportunities among the local community and key partners

Business Impacts

  • Increase in job satisfaction among employees from 75% in 2008 to 83% in 2009
  • Customers saying “Müller is a brand you trust” has increased from 61% in 2008 to 65% and the brand value share has increased by 2% (£10m)
  • Volunteering projects have given Müller’s employees an insight into how yogurt is produced, the role of the farmer and therefore a better understanding of their business
  • Workshops have helped farmers raise protein levels of their milk from 3.2% to 3.4% meaning better quality yogurt

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