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DAIRY CREST GROUP PLC

INTERIM RESULTS For the period ended 30 September 2005

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Highlights

• Group Revenue £641.9m (2004: £630.5m)

• Adjusted profit before tax* £26.1m (2004: £35.7m)

• Adjusted earnings per share* 14.8 pence (2004: 20.8 pence)

• Interim dividend up 7% to 6.3 pence (2004: 5.9 pence)

• Net debt £301.2m (2004: £260.5m)

* Including share of joint ventures and before special items and amortisation of intangible assets

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Highlights

• Strong performance from Cathedral City, Clover and Petits Filous

• Cheese business benefiting from strong Cathedral City growth and firmer market prices

• New marketing campaigns launched for Country Life and St. Ivel advance Omega-3 milk (“Clever milk”)

• Planned launch of Omega-3 enriched St. Ivel Gold early in 2006

• Additional fresh milk volume for Morrisons implemented at end of October 2005

• Strategic acquisitions of Midlands Co-op Dairies and Starcross Foods to strengthen the Dairies division with integration progressing to plan

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Financial Review

Alastair Murray

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Reporting Changes

• Financial information now presented under International Financial Reporting Standards with 2004/05 comparatives restated

• Full restatement of 2004/05 and reconciliation to UK GAAP available on company website: www.dairycrest.co.uk

• New divisional reporting

Foods: Spreads, Cheese and YDC

Dairies: Liquid Products, Household and Ingredients

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Year March 05

£’m Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

91.9 Trading profit 33.1 44.2

(16.2) Interest (7.0) (8.5)

75.7 Profit after interest 26.1 35.7

(5.4) Special Items (4.1) (1.1)

- Intangible amortisation (0.3) -

1.0 Profit on property disposals - 0.6

71.3 Profit before tax 21.7 35.2

(19.7) Taxation (6.0) (9.4)

51.6 Profit after tax 15.7 25.8

Income Statement

* All items include share of joint ventures

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Earnings and Dividends

Year March 05 Pence per share

Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

Change %

43.9 Adjusted EPS 14.8 20.8 - 29%

41.4 EPS basic 12.3 20.6 - 40%

20.2 Dividend declared 6.3 5.9 + 7%

123.4 Shares in issue: m 124.8 123.4

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Segmental Analysis

Year March 05

£’m Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

Group Revenue

518 Foods excl jv 254 258

88 Joint ventures 34 46

606 Foods 288 304

743 Dairies 388 372

1,349 Total 676 676

Trading profit *

49.2 Foods excl jv 24.3 24.8

7.5 Joint ventures 4.6 3.3

56.7 Foods 28.9 28.1

35.2 Dairies 4.2 16.1

91.9 Total 33.1 44.2

* Including share of joint ventures and before special items and amortisation of intangible assets

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Trading Margin*

Year March 05

% Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

9.5 Foods excl jv 9.6 9.6

8.5 Joint ventures 13.5 7.2

9.4 Foods 10.0 9.2

4.7 Dairies 1.1 4.3

6.8 Total 4.9 6.5

* Including share of joint ventures and before special items and amortisation of intangible assets

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Balance Sheet

Year March 05

£’m Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

466.4 Net operating assets 533.2 469.3

(18.3) Tax (12.2) (14.2)

448.1 521.0 455.1

(227.5) Net debt (301.2) (260.5)

220.6 Net assets employed 219.8 194.6

103% Gearing 137% 134%

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Operating Cash Flow

Year March 05

£’m Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

91.9 Adjusted trading profit* 33.1 44.2

33.1 Depreciation 18.0 16.3

(1.3) Special items (3.8) (1.2)

(1.3) Joint ventures and other (1.9) (1.8)

20.6 Working capital (26.4) 6.6

143.0 Operating cash flow 19.0 64.1

* Including share of joint ventures and before special items and amortisation of intangible assets

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Cash Flow

Year March 05

£’m Half year Sept 05

Half year Sept 04

143.0 Operating cash flow 19.0 64.1

(37.7) Capital expenditure (net of grants) (21.3) (13.9)

(54.2) Interest, tax and dividends (37.0) (30.9)

(9.9) Acquisitions (39.5) (5.4)

8.4 Disposals 4.1 5.8

2.6 Other 1.0 (0.5)

52.2 Movement in net debt (73.7) 19.2

Net debt at 31 March 2005 (227.5)

Net debt at 30 Sept 2005 (301.2)

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Business Review

Drummond Hall

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BIGGER THAN

£98m

£38m

£49m

£65m

We’ve got some big brands• Brand portfolio including the YDC brands now worth over

£500m at retail value

Source: TNS / AC Nielsen Oct 2005

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Well Invested Sites

• Investment in low cost operations to maintain competitive advantage

• Dairies division now has geographical reach to effectively cover England and Wales

• Davidstow is the most modern cheese facility of its type in Europe

• Nuneaton national distribution centre

Totnes

SevernsideChadwell

Heath

Fenstanton

Foston

NRC Dairies

Northern distribution limit

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Spreads

• Key brands have maintained market share

• Increased investment in media

• Moving towards a simplified portfolio

- fewer brands / skus

• Good performance from Clover with sales value growth of 3%

- lower proportion of sales on promotion

- price increase achieved in September 2005

• Utterly Butterly continues to make progress against competition

- Increased share of dairy spreads sector

- sales up 4% by volume but down 4% by value

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Spreads

• St. Ivel Gold volume and share under pressure

- sales down 2% by volume and 14% by value

- new product development focused on health

- new marketing campaign in early 2006 together with launch of St. Ivel Gold with Omega-3

• Good growth in Country Life with sales of packet and spreadable up 4% and 15% by value respectively

- new marketing campaign late Summer 2005

- national TV advertising for the first time in 20 years

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Cathedral City

• Strong performance from Cathedral City

- sales up 16% by value

- lower proportion of sales on promotion

• New packaging successfully launched

• National TV advertising

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Cheese

• Cost based price increases achieved in summer 2005- benefit H2 performance- industry cheese stocks have continued to be tight

• Successful implementation of new own label supply arrangements with ASDA and Morrisons

• Reduced volumes of traded cheese

• Stilton business continues to be challenging

• Strong market for whey products

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Cheese Stocks

British Cheese Board cheddar stocks12 month moving average

K tonnes

85.0

90.0

95.0

100.0

105.0

110.0

115.0

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Yoplait Dairy Crest

• Continued good growth in chilled yogurts and desserts market

- driven predominantly by functional sector

• Brands continue to perform well with sales up 9% by value

- Petits Filous up 24% and Frubes up 30%

• New product development

- Petits Filous plus: probiotic yogurt drink for kids

- Petits Filous smooth and fruity yogurt

• Closure of own label operations June 2005

- improved performance in 2005/06

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Liquid Products

• Volumes in H1 2005/06 impacted by Tesco volume ceased in April

• Morrisons increased volume implemented end of October 2005

• Higher oil related costs

• Price increases achieved from March 2005

• Continued strong growth in organic milk up over 50% by value

- Rachels brand up 38% by value

• Flavoured milk volumes up 25% following business win with Tesco

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Dairies Acquisitions• Starcross Foods acquired 5 May 2005 for £17m

- Foston, Derbyshire with current capacity c.100m litres of milk pa

• Midlands Co-op Dairies acquired May 2005 for £20m

- sales of approximately 200m litres of milk pa

- mixture of retail, wholesale and doorstep customers

- 4 year contract to supply Co-op stores in Midlands region

• Acquisitions extend geographical reach to effectively cover England and Wales

• Integration into existing Dairies business progressing well

- three household depots closed

- Foston now processing milk for Morrisons

- Birmingham dairy planned to close end February 2006

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Other Liquid Products

• FRijj maintained market leading position- value down 9% due to lower promotional volume- considering options to increase capacity

• Potted cream volumes up over 30%

- M&S own label cream transferred from YDC Enfield to new facility at Chard

• Skimmed milk powder and bulk butter markets remain strong

• St. Ivel advance has national distribution with all major retailers

- brand endorsement from Professor Winston- “Clever milk” TV advertising launched in Nov 2005

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Household

• Overall household volumes up 22% half on half

- volume gained in middle ground

- Midlands Co-op Dairies acquisition

• Underlying doorstep decline maintained at around 8%

- increased investment in canvassing

- first class service initiatives

• Non-milk product sales up by 17%

• Doorstep price increase from September 2005 of 2 pence per pint

• Acquisition of Arla’s London Foodservice business October 2005

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Milk Procurement

• Strong working relationship with Dairy Crest Direct

• Around 70% of raw milk sourced from Dairy Crest Direct

- majority of Midlands Co-op Dairies farmers have joined

• Increased prices on cheese contracts of 0.8 ppl maintained

• Price reductions on liquids contracts following 0.6 ppl increase in Spring 2005:

- 0.3 ppl from August

- 0.275 ppl from November with commitment to maintain this price until March 2006

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Outlook

• Trading conditions remain competitive with continued impact of high oil related costs

• Foods division expected to benefit in H2 from continued brand development and cheese price increases

• Dairies division materially strengthened with acquisition benefits coming through towards the end of the financial year

• Group’s expectations for full year remain unchanged

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DAIRY CREST GROUP PLC

INTERIM RESULTS For the period ended 30 September 2005