Dairy Crest is set to boost the sales of fresh milk in supermarkets with the launch of a six-pint bottle. The innovation comes after the company identified in-home availability as a key driver for increased consumption. Currently one in five UK households runs out of milk at least once a week.

According to Dairy Crest, the migration of customers from doorstep delivery to supermarket purchase has led to an overall reduction in the size of the fresh milk market.

Supermarket shoppers buy an average of 1.3 pints per week less than they did when buying from a milkman, with the shift in purchasing trends resulting in lost sales of £77M last year alone.

The six-pint bottle is designed to address this by encouraging supermarket customers to trade up to a larger format.

The bottle has been specially designed by Nampak with a larger, stronger handle and a new neck to make it easy to handle and pour.

Dairy Crest is investing £350 000 in the six-pint bottle launch. Backed by a PoS campaign, the new format will initially be available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Safeway and ASDA stores in the West Country region, with a national roll out to all Dairy Crest customers planned for March 2004.