VIBY, Denmark – Peder Tuborgh, CEO of Arla Foods, has made the following statement on the COVID-19 measures adopted by his company. Arla Foods is a Scandinavian multinational cooperative based in Viby, Denmark, and the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia.
The scale, speed and impact of COVID-19 has taken us all by surprise and, more than ever, the pandemic is showing us that we are all linked together. How we decide to act as individuals or as an organisation in the crisis clearly has an impact on society as a whole.
I have been in the dairy sector all my working life and I have dealt with my share of crises, but this one is truly unparalleled. Even though our plans and routines have certainly been disrupted here at Arla, the core of what we do remains the same and is clearly reflected in our two most important priorities during this crisis:
The first is to protect the health and welfare of our people – both the employees on Arla farms and colleagues working at our dairies, in logistics and in our offices. We are following the guidance of national health authorities and governments and have put the necessary measures in place to do what we can to keep our people safe.
The other is to keep our products flowing – to ensure that our dairy supply chain remains operational so that we continue to collect milk from all our farmers and maintain a steady flow of dairy products to customers and consumers.
The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour dramatically across the different countries we supply to, which is why we are prioritising supply of the products that are most important to people at this time. This includes products for everyday life at home, such as fresh dairy products, infant nutrition, cooking products, long-life milk, nutritional products for the medical sector and milk powder for countries outside Europe.
As the virus reaches its peak in different countries and regions, we expect our system to be further stretched. We are monitoring and managing potential risks constantly, have solid mitigation plans in place and are confident that our core operations will remain stable.
I would like to express my huge gratitude towards all colleagues in Arla, to Arla’s farmer owners and their employees and to our customers, suppliers and other business partners. Everyone is doing their utmost to help us keep our products flowing while protecting the health and wellbeing of our people.
Thank you and take care.
Peder Tuborgh, CEO of Arla Foods
