Arla Foods escaped the worst of the storms across Europe

An articulated lorry bound for the UK was rerouted through the Channel Tunnel and some of Arla Foods UK staff were left stranded in London’s traffic. Some London retail outlets also suffered delayed deliveries as storms brought chaos to the United Kingdom last week.

The hurricanes and floods which caused havoc across Europe hit Southern England particularly hard causing trees to block roads and bringing train and air services to a halt. Some staff at Arla Foods Oakthorpe Dairy in North London never made it to work and, in a small number of cases, some daily deliveries to 300 London stores were delayed. Several distribution vehicles, however, arrived at shops to find that they were closed due to floods.
Arla Foods’ second London Dairy, Hatfield Peverel, was hit by power cuts although production of liquid milk was resumed after a few hours.
In Denmark, Esbjerg, from where Arla Foods ships more than 100 tons of food products to the UK each day, was among the hardest hit areas. In view of the risk of delays across the North Sea, one trailer carrying yoghurt was routed via the Chunnel between Calais and Dover. Four trailers carrying butter and one carrying cheese, however, went by ship. In the end, with a delay of only four hours on the crossing, UK customers did not suffer any inconvenience.