Robert Wiseman Dairies, which operates the world's biggest milk plant at Droitwich, said yesterday it was feeling the pinch from soaring oil prices as it revealed general interim operating costs had risen by 10 per cent.
The group said transport costs rocketed as crude oil prices surged past $90 a barrel for the first time, while the cost of plastic used in its packaging also hit all-time highs.
But Glasgow-based Wiseman added that sharp increases in the price of milk seen on the back of commodity cost increases had helped drive half-year turnover up to a record £327.6 million, an increase of 12 per cent.
The group said it had introduced lighter milk bottle caps to help combat rising plastic costs.
Its new caps are 20 per cent lighter and will save the group 130 tonnes of plastic resin a year. Despite the cost pressures, interim pretax profits rose by 11 per cent to £18.2 million, on an underlying basis in the six months to September 29.
But it was a "challenging" half-year period according to the firm, which was faced with record demand from customers and an over-haul of milk supply arrangements with major customers Sainsbury's and Tesco.
The supermarkets recently launched their own segregated supply chains, with Robert Wiseman switching fully over to the new system with Tesco earlier this month.
The group was also found provisionally guilty of price fixing by the Office of Fair Trading in September.
The firm is one of a number of supermarkets and dairies under fire from the OFT, accused of colluding to increase the price of milk, cheese and butter at a cost of around £270 million to consumers.
Rivals dairies Arla, Dairy Crest, Lactalis McLelland and The Cheese Company were also named in the investigation, with Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury and Safeway, now also owned by Morrisons.
