Bremen, 15.04.2026. The DMK Group looks back on a successful financial year 2025. Following a strong performance in 2024, Germany’s largest dairy cooperative consistently stayed its course and once again demonstrated its operational and economic strength. Across all key performance indicators, the company delivered strong results and performed at a competitive level within the market. A top-tier milk payout compared to industry benchmarks, along with newly acquired cooperative members, underline the effectiveness of DMK’s strategic path.
2025: Achieving a great deal together
The 2025 financial year was characterized by forward-looking decisions, ambitious goals, and strong collaboration. Alongside the construction of the new natural cheese warehouse in Hoogeveen, DMK made substantial investments to expand capacities at its Edewecht and Altentreptow sites — key steps toward further strengthening value creation, international competitiveness and security of supply. At the same time, DMK significantly sharpened its climate targets to actively drive the transformation of the dairy sector. By 2030, Scope 3 emissions are to be reduced by 25 percent, FLAG emissions by 30.3 percent, and combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions by a total of 42 percent. 2025 was also a year in which DMK took a clear stand: the company responded to the public debate surrounding MILRAM cheese packaging with clear values, transparency and consistency, and emerged from it stronger.
Milk payouts at competitive level
With regard to milk payout performance - the most important objective of the cooperative organized DMK – the company ranked among the top payers in the competitive landscape in 2025. The cooperative (DMK eG) paid its farmer members an average milk price including bonuses of 51.4 cents per kilogram. (47,31 cents per kilogram).
Both the equity ratio (37.9%; previous year: 35.4%) and net result (€24.0 million; previous year: €24.6 million) exceeded planned figures in 2025. Revenue of Germany’s largest dairy cooperative increased to €5.3 billion (previous year: €5.1 billion).
“Our strong performance demonstrates that our Strategy 2030 was and remains a solid foundation for our path forward. We have further strengthened our market position, achieved a competitive milk payout price for our farmers, and taken important steps to enhance our future viability and ensure a reliable supply of dairy products,” said Ingo Müller, CEO of the DMK Group. “Especially with regard to our planned merger with Arla, these results reflect an impressive spirit of collaboration and a clear shared objective: to keep our cooperative community strong over the long term.”
Outlook 2026
For the 2026 financial year, DMK initially expects a persistently challenging market environment. High milk volumes in key producing regions are leading to strong utilization of processing capacities and, particularly at the beginning of the year, continued pressure on raw material markets. At the same time, initial signs of stabilization are emerging for core dairy products, supported by robust demand in the European internal market and solid international competitiveness. Against this backdrop, DMK anticipates that supply and demand will gradually rebalance over the course of the year, even though geopolitical uncertainties and high production volumes may continue to cause volatility. Nevertheless, the company considers itself well positioned overall and looks positively toward the current year: The first months demonstrate that DMK is seamlessly building on the strong performance of 2025 and continues to successfully translate its strategic portfolio focus into above‑average value creation.
Merger with Arla: Course set for the next step
Alongside the implementation of ongoing projects, the planned merger with Arla will be the central focus in 2026. The plans, which were approved by an overwhelming majority of the cooperative representative bodies of both companies in June 2025, aim to bring together two of Europe’s leading dairy cooperatives with highly complementary portfolios. The objective is to further strengthen long-term resilience and jointly advance innovation within the industry.
“Looking ahead, we are now focusing on consistently continuing the steps we have already initiated. The planned merger with Arla will be one of our key topics in 2026—a significant process that will shape us all and that we are approaching with responsibility, foresight and great confidence. At the same time, it is crucial for us that our operational business remains stable at all times and continues to run smoothly”, said Müller.
The merger is currently undergoing regulatory review, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.
