# UK Cafe Milk Price Survey 2018



## cafesuccess (Sep 25, 2015)

We recently conducted research into the cost of milk and how it's delivered to UK cafes and coffee shops, here are the results. https://www.cafesuccesshub.com/uk-cafe-milk-price-survey-2018-results/


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## fenix (Oct 31, 2010)

That's a terribly written report, bottle as the unit of measurement? Big bottle, little bottle, baby bottle? Pints, Litres?? Define your units of measurement!


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## Barry Cook (Feb 14, 2012)

fenix said:


> That's a terribly written report, bottle as the unit of measurement? Big bottle, little bottle, baby bottle? Pints, Litres?? Define your units of measurement!


I concur Fenix.

I'm not quite sure what this report is trying to achieve at all, to be honest. Surely it's just going to put even more pressure on the dairy farmers who are already having to produce at almost zero profit?


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

Yes, what size bottle? And what about quality of milk. Eg a locally sourced milk from a local dairy is going to be an "advertisable asset" (not sure what the technical lingo is!)

It's also going to taste better and have potential environmental pluses (method of storage, glass, plastic, bag) distance traveled, traceability etc.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

There was a farmer on Countryfile last night who had set up in a small way, milking, treating and bottling , in glass bottles, then selling locally.

The milk was very highly thought of in the locality.


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## JayMac (Mar 28, 2015)

Organic, or not? Region? Type of farm? Dimensions to break the prices down by are numerous. I looked for a "download the real data link" but found nothing. The "don't just be silly and squeeze your suppliers" advice was nice to see expressed though. But yah, a report with one data point? Ouch.


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## Stevie (Nov 18, 2015)

£1.11 average? Cheap! We pay £1.36 (2L), but hey, its good stuff.

But I also concur with the other posters.... This infographic means nothing. It doesn't inform us on a conclusion, and is terrible unspecific. A 'bottle' of milk is not a thing. Also, how was that geographically decided, were there quality parameters, and what does £1.11 tell me that's useful? That I should squeeze my low margin farmers even more?


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## cafesuccess (Sep 25, 2015)

It's a fair point you make, for simplicity and as the majority used 2 litre bottles the price was calculated based on that. The purpose of the analysis is to try and shed some light on this for cafe and coffee shop owners who have no benchmark to work on.

As we say in the summary having a good relationship with your supplier is very important and this is not about putting any more pressure on dairy farmers as someone mentions further on in the thread.


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## Stevie (Nov 18, 2015)

I don't think people need a benchmark for their milk. Well, not in the specialty industry. I wanted to use Northiam Dairy, end of - because lots of great shops use them, they are local to me, and their barista milk is the best I can get. Their fee is flat - £1.36 a bottle, so i just live with it. £50 a week on milk is one of my 'cheaper' business costs.


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## Barry Cook (Feb 14, 2012)

El carajillo said:


> There was a farmer on Countryfile last night who had set up in a small way, milking, treating and bottling , in glass bottles, then selling locally.
> 
> The milk was very highly thought of in the locality.


I watched that as well, and I applaud him for sticking to his beliefs instead of going down the route of trying to compete with the big boys.

Our local organic dairy are the same if a little bit bigger. I have no interest in trying to negotiate the price down as I charge what I need to as I can justify cost to our customers by pointing to the quality of the ingredients we use. If anything, I've been the one encouraging the dairy to charge me more as I want to make sure they are making a sustainable living from the hard work they put in.


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