Liquid Milk Innovation Is The Real Win For Growth
HRA Global in The Dairymen: why white milk needs a new reason to buy
In The Grocer’s latest feature on liquid milk innovation, the numbers tell two stories. Take-home milk value is up 6.4%. Volumes, however, have edged down 0.6% [Worldpanel by Numerator 52 w/e 14 June 2026]. Kim Shaddick, Project Delivery Manager at HRA Global, puts it plainly. Inflation can hide falling litres for a while, she argues, but it doesn’t solve the problem.
Why liquid milk innovation matters now
Part of the issue is that some of milk’s traditional occasions matter less than they did. At the same time, pricing has become harder to read. The average farmgate price fell from 43p to 34p a litre over the past year [Defra]. Yet shoppers paid 6.9% more per litre in supermarkets.
Some segments are holding up better than others. Filtered milk, for example, is worth £518.8m, with value up 2.8% and volume flat. Shaddick explains why the two don’t move together. The shelf price has to cover processing, packaging, energy, labour and retailer margins. As a result, there’s always a lag, and often a disconnect. That leaves suppliers balancing competitive pricing against real volatility. So liquid milk innovation offers another route to value.
UHT and the freshness problem
UHT shows how hard shifting habits can be. It makes up just 5.1% of milk value, and volumes fell 7.5% in the past year. In fact, that’s the weakest performance in the category.
For Shaddick, the barrier is cultural rather than technical. A century of doorstep delivery taught British shoppers that fresh, chilled milk is the default. Consequently, telling people UHT lasts longer rarely wins them over. As she points out, freshness is a benefit to the shopper, while long life mainly helps the supply chain. Even so, suppliers still see a role for longer-life milk. Arla, for instance, is building a new UHT Centre of Excellence at its Lockerbie site. Any liquid milk innovation in this space has to start from what shoppers value.
What liquid milk innovation means for brands and retailers
Shaddick’s main point is about direction. White milk has long been defined by what’s removed, from skimmed to lower fat. Next, she expects the focus to move to what milk actually gives you. Launches already point that way. For example, Hunt & Brew’s Extra Protein Milk delivers 16g of protein per 250ml. Similarly, Tom Parker Creamery’s Bedtime Milk uses botanicals aimed at sleep. St Helen’s Farm’s SuperNutrio uses filtration to double the protein with nothing added.
For brands, liquid milk innovation means adding benefits people will pay for, without losing the simplicity that keeps milk a staple. Meanwhile, retailers can give these lines room to prove themselves. Clearer signposting in the milk aisle would help, so shoppers see more than price and fat content. Ultimately, volume has to be earned back, not defended.
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