The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced its decision to refer the deal to buy Hartington Creamery to the Competition Commission. In the summer, Long Clawson Dairy at Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, revealed that it had agreed to buy the creamery from Dairy Crest.
The farmers' co-operative has been negotiating to buy the Dairy Crest business for £3.5 million. The sale put the future of 180 jobs at the Stilton and speciality cheese business in doubt as Long Clawson announced plans to close the creamery and switch production to Leicestershire. But the OFT said last week that it had decided to refer the deal to the Competition Commission.
The takeover of Hartington Creamery would give Long Clawson more than 50 per cent of total UK sales of Stilton. Thereby, reducing the number of large-scale Stilton producers in the UK from three to two. Th
|