Milk tenders due soon
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by Karen Miles • Operators shortlisted to work in the new milk market regime are about to find out which of them have succeeded in breaking into the multi-millionpound milk haulage business.
Up to 80 tendered for the first batch of depots coming up for grabs—around 35 hauliers are still in the running.
With the new liberalised milk industry due for launch on 1 November, the chosen hauliers will have less than five months to get ready for business.
The tender results for the 23 milk collection and delivery sites, which handle 30% of the milk moved from farms to purchasers in England and Wales, are due to be announced by mid-June.
When the hauliers' customer, Milk Marque, takes over from the Milk Marketing Board in November, it is expected to buy around 75% of the milk in the deregulated market. Dairy farmers are currently forced to sell all their milk to the MMB.
The winning hauliers will break up the traditional domination of four opera tors: Co-Operative Wholesale Services; NFT Coldstream; Wincanton; and Dairy Products Transport—DPT is owned by the NIMB.
Further evidence of DPT's intention to quit the third-party milk haulage market came this month with its decision to withdraw from two sites at Cardiff and Preston.
Milk Marque is now asking hauliers interested in collecting from 1,000 farms to con. tact it for further details.