Glasgow-headquartered McQueens Dairies has announced a multi-million pound expansion plan.
The move includes buying the former Muller dairy plant in East Kilbride and the creation of up to 100 jobs over the next years.
The family business, founded in 1995 by chairman Mick McQueen and his wife Meg, now operates eight distribution depots in Scotland and the north of England and a dairy in Glasgow. It opened its latest depot in Galashiels in May 2019.
McQueens currently employs 400 staff with all of the couple's five children holding senior positions within the business.
The 6.5-acre dairy site in East Kilbride will allow the business to accelerate its plans to grow its doorstep deliveries.
The new plant is expected to be opened in spring 2020 will result in the creation of the jobs.
Mick McQueen said: “We’re an ambitious business that delivers milk direct to customers’ doors and want to build on the success we’ve achieved so far.
“In the last year we grew turnover by 30% and we expect that increase to be repeated this year so the new dairy in East Kilbride, which is larger than our current dairy, gives us a real platform to maintain that momentum. We’re also very excited about creating many new jobs as a result.
“Our success to date has been by focusing on the demand for doorstep delivery both here in Scotland and in the north of England. We know that many people purchase milk from supermarkets but our business is about delivering milk direct to the consumer be that doorsteps or businesses.
“There is a real growth in the demand for doorstep delivery and we are perfectly placed to respond.”
He said the current dairy and distribution centre at the M8 Food Park in the north of Glasgow had reached capacity and didn't allow scope to expand.
“So the move to a purpose built dairy, just 12 miles away and still within easy reach of our tens of thousands of customers makes perfect sense.”
McQueen said: “We will be using the dairy in a different way to how it was used before, which was predominantly to produce flavoured milk and potted cream.
“We’ll be focused on processing liquid milk along with orange and apple juices so a large part of our investment will be in modern dairy technology including new refrigeration plant, pasteurising equipment and a filler line that includes glass bottles which are having a resurgence with our customers.
“We are also pleased that another positive result from our expansion is that we will be processing more milk.
Our supply relationship with First Milk will see them delivering more raw milk to us, directly from farmers which is good news for everyone.”
Fraser Brown, commercial director of First Milk, said: “This announcement is great news and we look forward to continuing our milk supply partnership with McQueens as they grow and develop their business.”
McQueens Dairies has more than 100,000 milk delivery customers across Scotland and in the north of England served by distribution depots in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Galashiels, Mansfield, Huddersfield, Warrington and Preston.
