Arla, the Danish dairy co-op, has announced plans to invest almost €620m to expand capacity across a number of its dairy processing sites.

The dairy company said last week that it would invest a record €619m next year in a number of its dairy processing sites, including an expansion of its milk powder manufacturing site in Germany, an expansion of its mozzarella plant in Denmark and upgrading a new facility in Bahrain.

Arla also said it would make “significant investments” towards increasing the capacity at a number of its dairy ingredients sites. Arla processes almost 14bn litres of milk each year and is supplied by 11,000 dairy farmers in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium and the UK.

For 2019, Arla paid an average milk price of 36.6c/l to its farmer suppliers, which was in line with the milk price it paid in 2018.

The farmer-owned dairy co-op announced the expansion of its dairy processing capacity as it disclosed steady profits for its 2019 financial year. Arla recorded pre-tax profits of €347m for 2019, which was up 1% year-on-year. Operating profits were flat at €406m, with operating profit margins steady at 3.9%. The co-op’s turnover for the year grew by just 1%, to over €10.5bn.

Over 40% of Arla’s turnover comes from sales of branded consumer products. Sales of dairy products under the Arla brand were just over €3bn, while sales of its Lurpak butter brand grew to €588m.

Arla said it sold more than 100,000t of butter under the Lurpak brand name last year.