Now in its fourth week, the transport strike in Norway is causing a considerable loss of earnings for Arla Foods’ local subsidiary.

“The Norwegian business is based on sales to the catering sector and to the retail trade and we have lost 50% of our turnover to caterers and no less than 75% to retailers,” explains Executive Director Anders Jeppesen Jensen, Arla Foods Norway.

“In addition, we’ve had to discard a substantial amount of product because the sell-by date has been exceeded. We’re doing everything we can to minimise our losses by routing our products to other countries and production for the Norwegian market has been substantially reduced.”

“Unfortunately, a planned launch of a TV commercial for feta cheese has had to be suspended. As we’re now into the second month of the peak season for feta, the strike has been expensive for us,” adds Anders Jeppesen Jensen.

Within the retail sector, Arla Foods supplies 25 wholesalers of whom only 7 are currently receiving supplies from Arla Foods.

There seems little likelihood of an early end to the strike which has resulted in 6,000 people being temporarily laid off.