D and D Dairies “ Milking the Market”

The milk industry has seen turbulent times of late. While many small producers have been devoured by the nationals, one family firm remains steadfast in its independence.

… the ‘milk-shake’ up

D and D Dairies in Perthshire, Scotland is the happy union of two dairy farms either side of the Victorian spa town of Crieff. Having dairy farmed as neighbours for a century, in 1980 the McLaren family of Dargill Farm and the Simpson family of Duchlage Farm pooled their resources to build a combined milk processing and distribution plant and D and D Dairies was founded.

… farming the ‘milky way’

Today, Jim McLaren and Robert Simpson’s 350 home bred Fresian, Ayrshire and Holstein cattle graze on 2,000 acres of lush farmland and produce close to a staggering 3 million litres a year. Additional milk is sourced from other local dairy farms too. D and D’s own fourteen refrigerated lorries deliver throughout central Scotland. Currently we have over 600 commercial customers and more than 3,000 door-to-door. Business customers already include Perth, Kinross and Dundee Councils, Crieff Hydro and Scotland’s premier golfing mecca, the prestigious Gleneagles Hotel. Production turnaround is such that D and D claim the milk can be still inside a cow at 7 a.m. yet inside an American tourist the same afternoon!

The partners run the business very much as a family concern employing generations of local families to serve local families and firms. It is exactly these basic values which are the hallmark of D and D Dairies along with a top quality product and an efficient friendly service that has enabled them to keep a tenacious hold on the market: a hold showing every sign of strengthening as they continue to make gains on the commercial market ‘moo-ving’ further afield as their reputation widens.

While growing steadily the D and D operation remains compact in order to sustain their standing as suppliers of the freshest possible product with that personal approach so lacking in today’s industries.

As the saying goes, D and D Dairies truly are … “outstanding in their own field!”