BT milks dairy deal for €7.4m

Nordic alliance is a nice little urner

BT has announced that it has signed a three-year deal with a Danish and Swedish dairy group, Arla Foods, for €7.4m to develop and manage the company's European data network.

BT will oversee the group's VPN, which will initially cover 70 sites in continental Europe, with a second phase bringing on board 100 more sites in the UK and internationally, giving Arla Foods employees a central platform for data and voice.

The ARLA NET project comes with a view to a setting up an international ERP system for the company, which operates in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as in the Nordic region.

Anker Meijnertz, Arla Foods' CIO, said that the company had taken the lead from its UK arm in choosing BT. "[One] advantage was that our subsidiary in the UK, Express Dairies, already uses BT as a supplier of similar communication services," he said in a statement.