Our heritage

History

Way back in the 1880’s, dairy farmers in Denmark and Sweden formed small cooperatives to invest in common dairy production facilities. By doing this they made efficient use of their milk and higher quality products. The earnings they made from their milk were equally split between the dairy farmers and together they built a good future for themselves and the next generation on their farm.

Over the years, the cooperative idea proved increasingly attractive. Small farmer cooperatives merged and became stronger. They expanded from local to regional to national cooperatives. In 2000, the largest Danish dairy cooperative merged with its Swedish counterpart and Arla Foods, the first cross-border dairy cooperative, was formed.

The cooperative idea also flourished in other countries and through recent mergers cooperative owners in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg have joined Arla Foods. And we will continue to grow stronger...

ARLA LANDMARKS

The Arla history dates back to 1881 when the first dairies in Denmark and Sweden were founded.

Over the years many more co-operative daires were founded. After The Second World War there was 1,650 dairies in Denmark only and the number kept growing until the 1960's when the first ideas of creating nation wide dairies was suggested. From then on mergers and acquisitions among dairies was part of the daily life in both Denmark and Sweden.

In year 2000 the Danish MD Foods and the Swedish Arla ekonomisk Förening decided to merge. This was the first large cross national merger in the Nordic dairy industry - only to see many more come after.

Results & performance