Foods that start with h Foods amba is a Danish multinational cooperative based in Viby, Denmark, and the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia. Arla Foods was formed as the result of a merger between the Swedish dairy cooperative Arla and the Danish dairy company MD Foods on 17 April 2000. In the 1880s, dairy farmers in Sweden and Denmark formed small cooperatives to invest in common dairy production facilities.
1950s a growing number of cooperative dairies in other parts of Sweden began joining MC. In 1975, MC changed its name to Arla, a name previously used not only by Sweden’s first cooperative dairy, but also by the largest dairy retailer in Gothenburg between 1909 and 1965. In 1988, the company changed name to MD Foods. In April 2000, MD Foods merged with Swedish Arla and formed Arla Foods A. A with headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark, and became Arla Foods as it is known today. Arla Foods is the fourth largest dairy company in the world with respect to milk volume, seventh with respect to turnover. At the start of 2016, 12,500 farmers across Western Europe and Scandinavia owned the cooperative.
Arla Foods has three minor brands: Arla, Lurpak and Castello cheeses that are sold worldwide. The Arla Brand is both a co operative brand and a brand across all product categories. Arla Foods incorporates Arla Foods Ingredients, a former division established as an independent subsidiary in 2011. The head office is located in Denmark. Arla Foods Ingredients has one wholly owned production plant in Denmark, with joint venture production at facilities in Argentina and Germany. KG, to produce whey proteins for the food industry. Arla’s sales were seriously affected by a two month long boycott of Danish products in the Middle East in 2006.
Anger among Muslims over satirical cartoons of Muhammed published in Denmark was the initial cause. When the Danish government refused to condemn the cartoons or meet with eleven ambassadors from Muslim nations, a boycott of Danish products was organised, starting in Saudi Arabia and spreading across the Middle East. The Middle East is Arla’s largest market outside of Europe. Soon after the boycott hit Arla’s sales, the Danish government met with Muslim ambassadors and the newspaper issued an apology.
Despite this, the boycott continued unabated for two months. In March 2006, Arla took out full page advertising in Saudi Arabia, apologising for the cartoons and indicating Arla’s respect for Islam in the country. This caused controversy in Denmark, where women’s organisations and some politicians criticised Arla, and called on Danish women to boycott Arla’s products in Denmark. In April 2006, the company said that its products were being placed back in shops in the Middle East. Before the boycott, it supplied 50,000 shops in the area.