Nocton Dairies Ltd - finance

How will the £50 million development of the super-dairy on Dunston/Nocton Heath be financed I wonder?

Clearly one would have thought that Messrs Willes and Barnes will have money invested in the venture... and potentially Robert Howard too... but who else is involved?

There is a rumour that Clydesdale Bank plc, Glasgow may have advanced a business loan and for a while there has been an indicator possibly involving Arla Foods.

Arla are due to build a huge milk processing facility in London. To guarantee supplies, would this give sufficient reason for Arla to support Western Europe's largest intensive dairy?

There is an interesting sentence included in an article about the High Court case between Arla and the "Barnes partnership/Withgill Farm Limited", published in Farmers Weekly Interactive on 25th November 2008: "Following the conclusion of the case, both Arla Foods and Mr Willes were understood to be in discussion about developing a future commercial relationship."

Is this about to come to fruition with the Nocton Dairy? See Note 1

It is thought that Tesco See Note 2 could also be involved... Mr Willes already has close ties with this supermarket through his cheese production facility at Parkham Farms... see here:
http://www.tescofarming.com/v2/farmer-profile.asp?id=3
and here:
http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/projects/parkham-farms/

Perhaps the newly formed Liaison Committee by Oxtale Public Relations might like to clarify these issues on who the stakeholders are in this venture, in its role of establishing the facts behind this development?

If any of my readers would like to give a contribution to my musings above, please feel free to comment.

Note 1 - Update 15th September

I am much obliged to the contact who supplied the following extract to me from recent correspondence with Arla Foods:

"The dairy is a processing facility only and there will be no cows on site...  I'm not sure where you have heard that we have connections with Peter Willes and David Barnes.  We have no connection with them or their proposed Nocton farm in Lincolnshire and it is purely coincidental that we have announced our dairy as Nocton plans to resubmit its plans". [Nicola Hedge - Arla Foods]

Note 2 - Update 9th September

I am much obliged to the contact who supplied the following extracts to me from recent correspondence with Tesco:

Q: "I have heard various rumours that the venture may have financial backing from Tesco Plc and I would like to know if this is true."

A: "The rumours to which you refer directly in your email are completely untrue. I hope that this has answered your question, but if you would like to know more then we have have sic more information about our dairy policy or if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me again." [Felix Gummer - Tesco UK]

It is important that these issues be clarified.

EnvironmentGuardian.co.uk

From here to eternity: 340-mile journey for clotted cream made two miles away Supermarkets take pride in stocking local produce but distribution is 'complicated'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/03/food-miles-environment-impact

I would be interested to see the carbon footprint for each of the major supermarkets for comparison... as their HGV eat up the miles removing produce to their huge distribution depots, only to return the goods via the same journey to almost the original location.

I would be more interested in seeing the carbon footprint for the super-dairy.  Will one be produced I wonder reflecting transportation of cattle, feed and milk... the disposal of all the waste... the methane output from the cows... and the electricity required to run this agro-industry?