Dairy wants its missing 3,000 milk crates back
MORE than a third of Guernsey Dairy’s milk crates have gone missing, leaving the business with a potentially big bill to replace them.
The dairy has about 8,000 crates, used to carry milk and cream.
But they have many other uses and again about 3,000 of them have gone missing.
Dairy production manager Dave Domaille said it needed them back.
‘We are now nearly 3,000 milk crates short at the moment, which makes our distribution process extremely challenging,’ he said.
‘If we were to replace the missing crates the cost would be astronomical – an expense the Dairy can ill afford.’
In 2020 each crate cost the Dairy around £14 to replace. So replacing all the crates would have cost £42,000 then.
But since then costs for new ones have now gone up considerably.
The crates are used to make up orders for milk distributors and are often then used to deliver to restaurants, hotels, shops and supermarkets.
‘Each milk crate makes thousands of trips to and from shops with some lasting more than 20 years,’ said Mr Domaille.
‘They are extremely strong and sustainable when allowed to do their job and are not being removed from the milk delivery system for other purposes.’
The dairy issued an appeal in 2018 and again in 2020 and as a result more than 1,300 crates each time were returned.
But more have since gone missing.
It is believed that some are being used for grocery deliveries, as well as a handy DIY stools, both here in Guernsey as well as over in Sark and Herm.
‘We are not looking to prosecute anyone – we just need our crates returned. If they can do this as soon as possible that would help us enormously,’ said Mr Domaille.
The crates remain the property of Guernsey Dairy.
Islanders can return the crates by leaving them carefully at the layby outside Guernsey Dairy or on the left hand side of the entrance by the bike parking.
n Anyone seeing them while they are out and about can call 227777 so the crates can be picked up.
