Ash Amirahmadi

Ash Amirahmadi is one of the most high-profile leaders in the UK food and farming sector. Since 2018 he has been the Managing Director of Arla Foods UK, a cooperative owned by farmers which is the biggest dairy firm in the country and one of Britain’s largest food and beverage companies. He is also the current Chair of the boards of both Dairy UK and IGD.
Ash joined Arla more than 15 years ago. As a senior executive in the business his focus has been on growing revenues by meeting consumers’ needs for nutritious, affordable and more sustainable dairy products, thereby delivering financial stability and returns for Arla’s farmer owners.
Under his leadership Arla has played an important role in helping to meet the challenges of feeding the nation, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ash was appointed to the Government’s Food Resilience Industry Forum, and he and others in the company have been part of discussions with Defra, Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, the Department for Transport and others over issues relating to food security and the role of the sector in delivering the UK’s sustainability goals.
Ash began his career at Unilever after graduating from the University of Nottingham with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He held a number of positions in supply chain and commercial functions before being recruited into Arla’s UK business in 2004.
After further success in commercial positions, Ash joined the Arla Leadership Team in 2010, assuming responsibility for the cooperative’s relationships with its farmer owners. In 2012 he oversaw Arla’s transformative merger with Milk Link. He later moved on to briefly hold the position of Marketing Director before becoming Sales Director in 2016, charged with growing Arla’s business with UK customers.
During his tenure as Sales Director Ash oversaw a 120-strong commercial team with delivered sales growth of £200 million and a 9% uplift in the company’s branded sales. Since he became Managing Director more than 4 years ago Arla Foods UK has continued to grow and now has revenues in excess of £2 billion in this country, making the cooperative Britain’s leading dairy company.
Arla Foods is owned by approximately 9,000 farmers across several European countries. Around 2,100 of them are in the UK, representing between a quarter and a third of all British dairy farmers. The cooperative employs more than 3,800 people at 10 sites across England and Scotland, and is a leading supplier of fresh milk, butter, spreads and cream, as well as the country’s largest cheese manufacturer. Its much-loved brands include Lurpak, Cravendale and Anchor butter, as well as Lactofree, Skyr and Arla Protein.
With his background encompassing sales and commercial roles as well as managing relationships with Arla’s farmer owners, Ash is passionate about building a future food and farming system that has high environmental and wider standards and at the same time is financially successful for farmers because it delivers the healthy, affordable, high welfare and sustainable products demanded by consumers.
Ash was awarded an OBE for services to the dairy industry in the 2023 New Year’s Honours.