Arla has extended its partnership with McDonald’s, launching a line of co-branded milk bottles together with the fast-food chain in the UK.
The organic 250ml milk bottles will bear the Arla logo alongside McDonald’s famed golden arches and will be available in happy meals in over 1,270 of McDonald’s restaurants across the UK reaching, over 5.5 million customers a year.
Arla and McDonald’s have been working together for 30 years, with Arla supplying McDonald’s with organic milk since 2007 for use in its teas, coffees, porridge and happy meal milk bottles.
Jonathan Dixon, vice-president of foodservice for Arla, said: “We’ve been working on a range of initiatives in recent months aimed at making organic milk more accessible to our consumers. We have recently repositioned our branded organic milk as Arla organic milk to highlight its free range credentials, and the rollout of Arla organic 250ml milk bottles into McDonald’s restaurants across the country is a great way for us to expand the reach of our products.”
The launch comes a day after Arla unveiled a new campaign for its Nutrilac dairy ingredient portfolio, and two weeks since McDonald’s reported a 6.6% increase in global comparable sales.
Arla and McDonald’s have also worked together on agricultural initiatives, aimed at improving animal welfare, sustainability and farmer resilience. In 2017, McDonald’s received the Compassion in World Farming good dairy commendation for the commitments, made with Arla, on welfare standards around their organic milk supply.
Following on from claiming this award, Arla has been actively working to boost links between McDonald’s and Arla farmer owners to meet the robust welfare criteria for dairy cows.
McDonald’s UK agriculture manager Pete Garbutt said: “We’re proud that over 30 million litres of milk will be distributed to our restaurants around the country this year.
“Our award-winning partnership with Arla has seen some excellent work take place on animal welfare and sustainability, and it was great to see our work recognised by Compassion in World Farming. I look forward to continuing to work to further improve the sustainability of our dairy supply.”
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