Sale on the cards for Rachel's Organic

DAIRY products firm Rachel's Organic is set to be put on the market with a £20 million price tag, it was reported yesterday.

The group, which is one of the UK's oldest producers of organic dairy goods, is reportedly being put up for sale by its US-owner, Dean Foods.

Dean is understood to have hired bankers from NM Rothschild to look at the strategic options for the business.

The company traces its roots back to Brynllys Farm in west Wales, where the family of its founder Rachel Rowlands had a diary farm.

Rowlands's mother was one of the first people to sign up with the Soil Association in 1952, and Brynllys went on to become one of Britain's first certified organic dairies.

Rowlands and her husband Gareth took over in 1966, supplying organic milk to the Milk Marketing Board.

But their move into the yoghurts for which they are now best known came about accidentally in 1982 after freak snow storms hit Aberystwyth, preventing the milk tankers from reaching the farm.

The family distributed emergency supplies of milk locally, and converted some of the remaining milk into butter and cream by hand.

Rowlands later researched old recipes for other dairy products including yoghurt, leading to the creation of the Rachel's Organic brand.

The company expanded rapidly between 1985 and 1990, leading to a new dairy being built, and its products stocked by major supermarket chains.

The business was bought by US-based Horizon Organic Dairy in 1999, which was in turn acquired by its current owner in 2004.