Muller accounts give a rare glimpse behind the scenes

Muller has continued to invest during the crisis in the dairy industry, snapping up major dairies in Telford and Minsterley, agreeing an £80 million deal to buy out the dairies operation of Dairy Crest, and opening a butter factory alongside its Market Drayton home in order to add value to its offer.

But it has also been the focus of farmers' fury as the price of milk has spiralled deeper and deeper into the depths of dismay, and attracted similar ire when it announced 40 redundancies at its Market Drayton plant earlier this year.

But for all the sound, the fury, and at times the admiration that is laid at the gates of Muller's home on the Tern Valley Business Park, it is only rarely that we get a glimpse behind the glossy sheen of Shropshire's biggest brand.

The publication of the company's accounts provide a rare insight into the true performance of Muller UK and Ireland, a subsidiary of a larger businesses which is registered in Luxembourg.

In brief, the UK business achieved annual revenue of £1.395 billion in the UK last year, and a profit before exceptional items of £81.6 million.

It saw its share of the UK yoghurt market decline as supermarkets cut back on discounts for its products, but overall it improved sales, thanks in part to former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger's high-profile advertising campaign for the brand.

Understand

Graeme Jack, Muller UK & Ireland's group corporate communications director, said: "Underlying profits made satisfactory progress, due to growth in our sales and a reduction in our costs."

But there are other matters we can better understand by studying the company's accounts.

When Theo Muller, chief executive of Muller's German parent company, took over his family dairy in 1971, it employed four people in a small Bavarian village.

It now employs 21,000 staff around the world, and achieves international revenues of around £3.6 billion – a significant portion of which comes from the UK.

But the number of people employed by the business in Britain fell last year, the new figures show, from 5,565 to 5,079.

Some of those came as it closed its Pensilva distribution depot in Cornwall, and the figures represent one of the harshest elements of the battle to cut costs in a difficult market for liquid milk.

Earlier this year, Muller also announced plans to cut 40 jobs from its site at Market Drayton, but in July revealed that another 50 were to be created at its Minsterley site.

Muller has been among the companies to have reduced the price paid to farmers for their milk over the course of 2015, but that is not one of the cost-cutting measures introduced by the company in an effort to counter the effect of the tough milk market.

Instead, that is a knock-on effect from the downturn in the market so much as a reflection of the price of milk and the demands of its customers.

Last year marked the first full year that the former Nom Dairy in Telford was included in the group's results, following the major deal to buy the loss-making facility from its Austrian rival in the autumn of 2013.

The performance of what is now known as the TM Telford Dairy at Donnington Wood was also addressed this week, with the release of a subsidiary set of accounts that shows that plant in an improving light.

The private label yoghurt manufacturer – which makes products for major supermarket chains – saw its revenue increase by 15 per cent to £46.2 million during 2014.

It fell to a loss of £4.7 million for the period, but that was significantly less than the £21.8 million it shipped the year before, and also an improvement on the £10 million loss that Nom had suffered during its final full year of operating the plant.

"Since being acquired by Muller Dairy there has been a focus on improving margins and identifying areas to reduce costs," the subsidiary company said in a statement.

"The acquisition has also enabled the company to benefit from economies of scale and source cheaper materials. A full year of these benefits has resulted in the company reducing its losses."

The cost savings do not appear to have included personnel, as the number of people employed at the plant increased from 165 to 187 between 2013 and 2014, bucking the trend seen in the wider business.