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Milk + More and the Quiet Reinvention of the British Milkman

In an age of on-demand everything, where groceries arrive before you've finished your morning scroll, Milk & More is betting on a distinctly old-school idea: the milkman. Only this time, he’s got an app. The company, owned by Müller Group, trades in early morning nostalgia, pitching reusable glass bottles and doorstep deliveries as modern convenience with a vintage twist. It’s a clever bit of branding that’s prompted headlines about a "surprise comeback" for the milk round. But is this model a genuine reinvention - or just a well-timed throwback?

Back from the Brink

Milk & More was formed in 2011 after the German dairy conglomerate Müller acquired Dairy Crest’s milk delivery business. At the time, the service was facing what can charitably be described as terminal decline: supermarkets had already swallowed most of the daily milk trade, and door-to-door delivery, once a staple of British neighbourhoods, had become a novelty act.

The company didn’t exactly roar back to life. It took years of tinkering, a few management changes, and a surprisingly robust pandemic panic before Milk & More found some momentum. "In 2005, it was a business in freefall," Patrick Müller - not related to the owning company - told The Independent in 2020. Patrick joined around that time and is credited with steering the company towards a more sustainable, digital-first strategy before becoming CEO.

During the UK’s Covid lockdowns, panic-buying and supermarket scarcity sent many consumers flocking back to nostalgic services that promised reliable, contactless delivery. Milk & More saw a spike in orders - by some accounts, as many as 40,000 new customers joined in a single week. Their glass bottle model also tapped into a broader appetitive for 'eco-friendly' consumption. The company now claims to serve around 400,000 households a week.

Still, a pandemic bounce is not a business model. The novelty of doorstep milk wears off quickly when price, convenience, and product variety come into play.

The App Is Fine. Let’s Not Pretend It’s Magic.

Customers order via the Milk & More app, which is where the company tries to make its reinvention stick. Select your items - milk, yes, but also bread, eggs, juice, or whatever else the eco-conscious middle class might want to see in a wicker basket - schedule your deliveries, and set up payments. The company touts the convenience of the app as central to its offering. To be fair, it works. But calling it disruptive would be generous.

Features like holiday pause and real-time updates do bring the experience in line with Instacart or Ocado. Refunds are handled in-app. Payments can be integrated with e-wallets. Users get the 21st century delivery service they expect. But underneath the interface is a fairly standard last-mile logistics operation - and one with decidedly tight margins. Milk & More drivers start their rounds as early as 2am, navigating doorsteps rather than data centres.

There’s also an awkward dependence on technology that can be selectively useful. Take, for example, the company's transparency efforts. Some delivery partners, like Farm Fresh Milk, offer customers farm-to-door traceability. Except it’s only for Android users. Transparency, until you reach the Apple-shaped blind spot.

The Plant-Based Pivot

Beyond the old-school dairy nostalgia, Milk & More is betting hard on the rise of plant-based alternatives. Their catalogue includes oat, almond, and soy milk - even niche options like coconut. The PR line positions these as health-conscious, dairy-free alternatives for the modern ethical consumer.

But package design doesn’t obscure physics: most plant-based milks offer less protein than cow's milk, and some offer little nutritional benefit beyond placebo. Oat milk tends to be the favourite - thanks to its creamier texture and better sustainability profile - but it’s still mostly starch and added calcium. Almond milk is even thinner on substance, both literally and nutritionally, and its production is notoriously water-intensive.

"There’s a heavy dose of marketing spin in how these drinks are presented," says Dr. Linda Boston, a nutritionist and research fellow at King's College London. "They fill a consumer niche and cater to dietary needs, but equating them with dairy is misleading. Most people choose them for lifestyle branding, not health."

It’s also worth noting that while plant-based alternatives are pitched as eco-friendly, the glass milk bottles are the real draw for climate-concerned buyers. Reusable containers feel virtuous - though only if they're actually reused. A DEFRA report warned that glass bottles must be used at least 20 times to match the carbon footprint of plastic. Many aren’t.

The Reality of Selling Milk in 2025

Milk & More exists in a strange liminal space - neither full grocery platform nor local delivery startup. Unlike Amazon Fresh or Deliveroo, it still largely focuses on core essentials, delivered on assigned routes in the early morning. This quasi-daily model also limits the kind of spontaneous purchasing behaviour that fuels modern e-commerce.

Despite efforts to expand - some customers can now order fruit, bakery items, even cleaning supplies - the catalogue is constrained. The logistics of hyperlocal delivery make profitability a challenge, especially with perishable goods. "It's a romantic business model with brutal economics," says Tim Davies, a supply chain consultant in London. "Logistics at this scale just don’t scale easily. Every new postcode is a cost."

A Nice Idea. But Not a Revolution.

There’s something undeniably comforting about seeing a glass bottle of milk on the doorstep. For many, it evokes a slower, less synthetic world. Milk & More is wise to this sentiment and plays it well - modern kind-of-milk for modern kind-of consumers. They’ve done a good job integrating technology into a retro framework. But the pitch is often stronger than the product.

The real question is sustainability - of the business model, not just the bottles. Can it hold as pandemic-era sentiment fades, and faster, cheaper grocery options mount? For now, Milk & More seems content with being niche - an unusually earnest service in a sector dominated by frictionless facelessness.

It’s not quite a comeback for the milkman. But it’s a decent second act.

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