Member Article

North East Dairy completes buyout deal

A North East dairy supplier has come under new ownership.

Lanchester Dairies on County Durham has been acquired by two of its four joint owners, in a deal backed by Yorkshire Bank’s Newcastle Financial Solutions Centre as part of its Investing for Growth Initiative.

Billy and Julie Austin are now sole shareholders of the dairy, after buying out their co-owners Geoff and Sandra Austin, with whom they founded the business in 1992.

Lanchester Dairies Ltd director, Julie Austin, says: “If we had not secured the Yorkshire Bank backing, we would not have been able to acquire the shares and maintain the Lanchester Dairies brand.

“Our plan now is to continue to grow the company by concentrating on the quality of our milk and high standards of service. We aim to do this by winning more corporate business although, as a family enterprise, we will never lose sight of the small shops and milkmen with their daily doorstep deliveries who have remained so important to us for the last 19 years.”

The business buys and processes milk from local Farmers in Durham and the Tyne Valley has 64 staff and an annual turnover of £14 million.

Yorkshire Bank Newcastle FSC business partner, David Allenson, says: “Lanchester Dairies’ attention to quality in all they do during the last 19 years has helped them build up a highly-regarded company which has retained its family ethos and attention to detail as it has grown.

“Yorkshire Bank is pleased to have helped Billy and Julie Austin acquire the business through our Investing for Growth initiative and look forward to supporting them as the enterprise goes from strength to strength.”

Yorkshire bank’s Investing for Growth initiative enables businesses to take loan repayment holidays, interest-only repayments and extended loan and credit terms to support growth opportunities.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .