{"id":266353,"date":"2026-08-16T10:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266353\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T10:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:24:08","slug":"cathedral-city-sold-as-part-of-a-988-million-dairy-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266353\/","title":{"rendered":"Cathedral City sold as part of a \u00a3988 million dairy deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The UK\u2019s best-selling cheese brand, Cathedral City, is being acquired by French dairy group Lactalis as part of a \u00a3988 million deal with Saputo.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The sale covers Saputo&#8217;s entire UK dairy operation, including five manufacturing sites and brands such as Clover and Country Life.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Carl Colizza, president and chief executive of Saputo, said: &#8220;The value to be realised recognises the expertise of the UK team, the quality of the operations and the market position of these leading brands.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;This transaction reinforces our strategic focus and enhances our financial flexibility as we continue to create long-term shareholder value through disciplined capital allocation.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>  When will Cathedral City deal close?<\/p>\n<p>\n  Cathedral City is the UK\u2019s most popular cheese brand, with sales of \u00a3320.2 million last year, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegrocer.co.uk\/rankings\/dairy-cheese-2025-natural-trend-drives-up-cheese-sales\/712951.article?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Grocer\u2019s Top Products report<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Saputo\u2019s UK division employs around 1,300 people and generated \u00a3630 million in revenue over the past year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The deal is expected to close by the end of March 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Lactalis said the acquisition supports its goal of expanding its portfolio with brands that reflect the UK\u2019s dairy heritage.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Emmanuel Besnier, chairman of Lactalis, said: &#8220;By welcoming famous brands and recognised expertise into the group, we are strengthening our position in the UK market and reaffirming our commitment to providing consumers with high-quality dairy products.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Colizza also thanked the UK team for their work.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: &#8220;We are profoundly grateful to our colleagues in the United Kingdom for their dedication and contributions to Saputo.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We look forward to seeing these strong assets and brands continue to build on their market positions under new ownership.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>  Major fashion retailer returns to UK high street 7 years after closing all stores<\/p>\n<p>\n  In other major UK business news, a fashion retailer has returned to the UK high street after closing all its stores seven years ago.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Karen Millen is a\u00a0luxury womenswear brand that specialises in tailoring, coats, and other occasionwear.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It\u00a0collapsed into administration in 2019\u00a0before being acquired by Boohoo Group.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  As a result, the company closed all its physical stores across the country and moved to an online-only model.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Recommended reading:\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Now, it will relaunch through a series of new concessions across the UK, with a focus on occasionwear and its signature Forever Collection.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The Leicester store at Fosse Park opened on Friday, August 14, and it will be followed by additional locations in Liverpool One and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/local-news\/aberdeen-news\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aberdeen<\/a>\u2019s Union Square on Monday, August 17.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  More concessions are set to follow, although the date and areas have not yet been confirmed.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Do you enjoy Cathedral City&#8217;s products? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s best-selling cheese brand, Cathedral City, is being acquired by French dairy group Lactalis as part of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-266353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}