This website is for members who are receiving a pension (Pensioners) or with an entitlement to a deferred pension (Deferred Pensioners) from the Dairy Crest Group Pension Fund (the Fund).
Available here is information about Dairy Crest Pension Trustees Limited (the Trustee of the Fund) and pension administrator contact details for both Pensioners and Deferred Pensioners. In addition there are various resources available for download, including the Trustee’s Annual Reports to Members giving updates on the progress of the Fund. We hope that you will find this site informative and useful.
The Fund is a contracted out, final salary pension scheme which was established by way of a transfer of assets and liabilities from the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) Pension Fund on 1 December 1993. Transferring members, who comprised current and former employees of Dairy Crest Limited together with individuals who had previously worked in the Dairy Crest operations of the MMB, were granted identical pension benefits in the Fund. The Fund was closed to new members in March 2006 and to future accrual in March 2010.
Dairy Crest Limited (the Company) is the Fund’s sponsoring employer and the Trustee is the corporate Trustee of the Fund. There are currently five Trustee Directors, including two member-nominated Trustee Directors who are appointed for a two-year term. One member-nominated Trustee Director commenced their third term of office on 1 October 2021 and the other was appointed for their first term on 1 October 2021. In September 2007 The Law Debenture Pension Trust Corporation plc was appointed as one of the three Company-nominated Trustee Directors and chairs the Trustee Board which meets a minimum of four times a year. Governance and Secretarial services are outsourced to Zedra Inside Pensions.
The Fund’s investments, with a current value of around £770m, are invested through a number of investment managers, in accordance with the Fund’s Statement of Investment Principles and allocation decisions made by the Trustee, based on advice from Aon (investment adviser) and Paul McGlone of Aon (Actuary to the Fund). Premier Pensions Management Limited (currently undergoing rebranding to Isio) provides administration services to deferred pensioners and uninsured pensioners (those not covered by the policy with Legal & General).
In December 2008 and in June 2009 the Trustee entered into two bulk annuity policies with Legal & General Assurance Society Limited in order to secure pensions in payment as at August 2008. These policies are investments of the Fund. Legal & General is responsible for the payment of pensions to Insured Pensioners and the related administration thereof.
The Actuary carries out an Actuarial Valuation of the Fund every three years. The last valuation was carried out as at 31 March 2022 and it indicated the Fund was fully funded.
The long term objective of the Trustee is to achieve self-sufficiency leading to a position where ultimately all benefits can be bought out with insurers. The Trustee will seek a progressive de-risking of the investment strategy, as market conditions allow, matching assets to liabilities, and it will also monitor further opportunities to insure Fund liabilities.