IN many ways it was a highly encouraging financial period for Graham’s The Family Dairy.
Revenue topped £100 million in the year to March as the Bridge of Allan-based firm introduced new products, opened new international markets and reaped the benefits if its acquisition of the Glenfield dairy in Fife.
But there were pressures, too. Ever-tightening margins in the UK dairy market were cited by the firm as its profits dipped, and it remains a long-term dilemma that shows no signs of going away.
In that regard the company’s hopes to build a new dairy and research centre in Bridge of Allan would appear to be crucial to its growth aspirations. The plans, first lodged in 2015, are currently stuck in planning limbo, having initially been refused by Stirling Council before being referred to the Scottish Government reporter.
Graham’s will be hoping for a positive outcome soon. As well as allowing it to increase production volumes, managing director Robert Graham said the facility will give it the capacity to move into products which potentially offer higher margins.
Beyond these shores, Graham’s is encouraged by the fruits of its endeavours in the international arena. As revealed by The Herald last month, the company has been holding talks with two of Spain’s biggest supermarket chains to stock its popular Protein 22 snack product, which is now already being sold elsewhere in the Europe and in the Middle East.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here