Shake-up of milk delivery services in Aberdeen and Inverness

Customers in Aberdeen and Inverness have a new supplier for their milk doorstep deliveries after Graham’s the Family Dairy sold some operations.

Family-run Mills Milk, headquartered in Ayrshire, has bought the business for a five-figure sum.

It’s a deal which see Mills Milk double its number of customers in Inverness and surrounding areas to 7,000.

In a further change, the former Graham’s customers in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire will now be supplied by Kerr’s Dairy after an agreement was struck between Mills and Dundee-based Kerr’s.

‘Perfect’ solution for customers

Mills director Adam Mills said: “We’ve always had dealings with Graham’s.

“They were looking to pull out of doorstep deliveries to concentrate on bigger things, like supermarkets.

“We did a deal and started the Inverness doors in March, and agreed we would takeover the Aberdeen ones a bit later.

“During that time I did a deal with Kerr’s and we’ve agreed on boundaries.

“Kerr’s has given us their Inverness business and we’ve given Kerr’s the business we’ve bought from Graham’s in Aberdeen.

“Myself and Kelvin (Kerr’s sales director Kelvin Kerr) are happy, because he’s got Aberdeen solely to himself and we’ve got Inverness to ourselves. It works out perfect.”

Inverness area customers ‘loyal’

Mills, which has been operating for more than 100 years and employs 150 people, has doubled the number of its doorstep delivery customers, thanks to the acquisition.

It now supplies homes in Aviemore, Dingwall, Elgin, Forres, Invergordon, Inverness and Nairn.

Mr Mills said: “The Inverness area has been very good and the customers are very loyal.

“They like to have milk delivered in glass bottles and do their bit for the environment.

“We currently have 20 people working in Inverness but we are always looking to expand our operation.”

In an email to customers, Graham’s said it had made the “difficult decision” to stop doorstep deliveries “due to current increasing fuel prices, labour costs and overall running costs”.

Kerr’s Dairy grows Aberdeen presence

The deal sees Kerr’s add another 473 customers in Aberdeen.

Kerr’s is a five-generation family business, with more than 120 years of history.

After gaining thousands of customers on Tayside, it ventured north in June 2020.

Mr Kerr said: “I’m really pleased. It’s allowing Mills Milk to focus on IV postcodes and we can focus on AB.

“I was already in Aberdeen anyway to take on Graham’s customers and it made sense we don’t overlap.

“We would never take each other customers anyway. But this works really well.”

The business has a combined 80 staff and 60 vans between its locations in Dundee and Aberdeen.

Kerr’s, which has a depot at Bridge of Don, added thousands more clients when it purchased Muller Wiseman’s database of 780 Aberdeen customers in February.

That was followed by more than 4,000 clients from Thomson Dairies.

It has a total of 23,500 customers between the two locations.

A spokesman for Graham’s said: “Our Kintore delivery operation wasn’t economical for us and we’ve transferred it to another family dairy business who’s focus is on serving customers in the area.”