A Lake District-based maker of baby milk will be among the first European manufacturers to fly formula to the US to help ease a shortage that has left many parents struggling to feed their babies.
Kendamil, the only UK-made baby milk brand on the market, produced by the family-owned Kendal Nutricare, has stepped up after Abbott Laboratories, the largest producer in the US with a 40% market share, had a nationwide recall.
The Cumbria-based company – whose milk was used the royal family to wean Prince Louis of Cambridge – will send 2m cans of infant formula to the US over the next six months, after the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), temporarily eased importation requirements for the sector until mid-November.
The changes are part of Operation Fly Formula, launched by Joe Biden this month to tackle the shortage that has arisen since Abbott closed a factory in Michigan in February and recalled infant formula products.
That decision followed a federal investigation into the cases of four babies taking the formula who developed bacterial infections, two of whom died. Abbott has said there is no link between its formula and the illnesses.
Kendamil was founded in 2015 by Ross McMahon – who bought the 11-acre food factory site from Heinz in 2015 for £1 – and his two sons, Dylan and Will. Since then, it has grown to a company that employs 160 people and has an annual turnover of £34m. Its factory can produce up to 10m cans a year of what is billed as “the only British organic baby milk, with no palm oil or fish oil”.
Dylan McMahon, head of growth at Kendamil, said the company obtained permission from the FDA on Tuesday night and would start sending its baby milk across the Atlantic “in the next week or so”.
Will McMahon, the commercial director of Kendal Nutricare, said the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted the supply chain for infant formula, while the Abbott recall caused a 40%-plus shortage of baby formula on shelves in the US.
He said the US had been “a closed shop for baby formula” for decades, where the top four producers account for more than 95% of purchases.
“In the United Kingdom, consumers have a much broader selection of products and that availability of foreign brands allows gaps to be filled. This is something relatively unique to the US,” he said.
“The bigger opportunity here is as a company we’ve been in touch with the FDA and working with them for over five years with the aim of bringing product into the US. There is enormous curiosity and demand for Kendamil in the States, so we are hopeful that we will have everything in place with the FDA to be able to continue to supply legitimately well beyond November.”
