by ann burdett

Published at 14:06, Friday, 27 November 2009

FIRST Milk says it will use some of the funds raised from its sale of Robert Wiseman shares to make new investments at its Aspatria creamery.

There will also be investment at its cheese-packing site at Maelor while a large share of the money raised will be used to build a new creamery at Campbeltown.

First Milk sold 4,170,171 ordinary shares in Robert Wiseman Dairies last Friday for £4.50 each, almost double what it paid for them in November 2004.

It has retained 7,162,026 shares or 10 per cent of shares in the company.

Paul Flanagan of First Milk said the money would be used in a number of ways including supporting the growth of the Lake District Cheese brand and putting more cheese into stock to keep up with demand.

He added: “We did, however, do very well from our investment – we bought shares at 250p, sold for 450p – and the timing was right for a part disinvestment to re-align the funding needs of our wider business.”

First Milk would not reveal how much extra investment it would be making in the Lake District Creamery.

Peter Humphreys, chief executive of First Milk, said: “This share disposal simply enables us to fund investment in our cheese business.

“We have no current plans to dispose of any of our remaining shareholding in the company.”

Robert Wiseman, chief executive of Robert Wiseman Dairies, said he saw no reason why the sale of shares should change its strategic partnership with First Milk. First Milk has come in for some heavy criticism in recent months after it reduced the price it was paying to former Dairy Farmers of Britain producers but failed to put their price back up when the spot market improved.

It has now offered these former DFB producers membership.

FIRST Milk said it experienced minimal disruption to milk pick-ups in the county in the floods aftermath. Drivers managed to get to every farm pick-up although many journeys were long and slow.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk