Whether it’s home-working requiring more cuppas, worries about plastic or a feeling of nostalgia for the sound of the early morning electric milk cart, home deliveries are on the increase. The milkman is back.

Blue tits will be pleased ...

Indeed. The garden birds love nothing more than to perch on a glass milk bottle and peck through the foil lid to reach the cream below. Anybody who grew up in the 1970s will know what it’s like to pick a bottle off the doorstep and find the tell-tale marks of an avian intruder. Back then there were plenty of bottles for the birds to feast on. In 1970 almost all milk reached consumers via milkmen (and they were usually men) driving around on electric floats. By the start of 2020, only about 5% of the UK’s milk was delivered that way as supermarkets ate into the business and most milk came in the plastic bottles which had in turn superseded Tetra Pak cartons.

What changed then?

The pandemic happened. People avoided supermarkets and shops, delivery slots became booked up, there was more home working and a fear of shortages. And, of course, there was the ongoing concern over the use of plastic in packaging. Having milk delivered in re-usable glass bottles by an electric float suddenly seemed like an idea whose time had come. Or come back, if you prefer.

It all sounds very old-fashioned …

Yes and no. The sound of an electric cart and tinkling bottles on an early morning milk round could have been heard as long ago as the 1950s, but in 2021 that basic model has been supplemented by some modern innovations. These days you don’t have to stick cash in the top of an empty bottle to pay the bill or change the order. It’s all done online. With work patterns changing, delivery times have moved forward as well so that those people who aren’t home-working can have their pint on the doorstep before they leave their home.

Who’s doing the delivering?

Milk & More is one of the companies at the forefront of the return to milk deliveries. They have enjoyed an increase in customers of 75,000 in the last 12 months meaning they now deliver 110 million pints of milk onto doorsteps annually. The ‘More’ part of the company name refers to other items that can be ordered for delivery as well, such as cheese and eggs.

And what do the milkmen say?

“Programmes such as Blue Planet and War On Plastic have made people want to change their lifestyles and cut back on it,” says Milk & More employee Ian Beardwell, a milkman for nearly three decades. “And getting milk delivered in a glass bottle is an easy switch people can make towards being greener as they leave out their empty bottles that I then take back and recycle.” Early start aside, it’s a rewarding job too. Beardwell notes that there was barely a single customer on his round who didn’t leave him either a card or chocolates at Christmas.