The Aylesbury site would be the worlds first billion litre dairy, made by Arla Foods to supply London and the South East with dairy milk. The scope was to build a factory with a high level of automation, including a fully automated dispatch area. This project was taken from a greenfield site, through the planning process and all the way to full operation.
At each stage there was consideration for sustainability. Waste materials were turned into energy via an anaerobic digestion plant. The entire filling and packing operation used industry leading low-levels of energy and water.
The plant generated 250 new jobs for the area. The project included the recruitment and training of these workers as well as a new IT system. The roll out combined building management systems (BMS) and energy management systems (EMS) with production planning to achieve the low energy usage. The new logistics facility was capable of servicing the demand from the south east of England.
Local infrastructure was upgraded, including roads and utilities as part of integrating into the community. In total this was a £250 million Capex project.
Project involvement
Client feedback
The Aylesbury super dairy is a flagship manufacturing facility. It was a winner of the AVDC outstanding design award, which appreciated the efforts that the architects, designers and clients made to the scheme.
Our Aylesbury dairy is the largest single investment for the cooperative and, as market leader, Arla is setting the future standard for the dairy industry
Peter Lauritzen, Arla Foods
