Dairy foods company Dairy Crest says its online doorstep delivery service milk&more has gained ground despite a wider decline in the doorstep milk delivery market.
milk&more allows customers to order groceries the evening before for next day delivery through the dairy’s doorstep milk delivery service. Dairy Crest said that average weekly sales are now approaching £800,000, less than a year after launch. It says that while its overall doorstep milk sales fell by 7% in the six months to the end of September, the milk&more service saw 12 of its 123 depots show higher doorstep sales in September 2010 than in September 2009. Twenty more of its depots saw sales fall by less than 2%.
The company said, in half-year results published this week: “We continue to make progress with milk&more. Important improvements to our systems which will increase customer capacity, enhance our promotional capability and deliver consumer behavioural analysis, are now almost complete.”
The update came as Dairy Crest announced, in its interim results , a three per cent fall in turnover, to £776.9m in the half-year to September 30, compared to the same time last year. At the same time pre-tax profits rose by 6% to £36.1m, from £34.0m last time.
Chief executive Mark Allen said: “Our strategy has proved successful in the challenging economic environment and positions us to deliver further value going forward. With operational efficiencies and selling price increases in certain categories limiting the impact of higher input costs, we are confident we can continue to deliver profits in line with our expectations.”
