Dairy Crest processed and sold milk (wholesale and via doorstep deliveries) and owned the milkshake brand Frijj until the sale of that part of the business to Germany's Müller in 2015.

The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange as Dairy Crest plc, until it was acquired by Saputo in 2019.

[6] The company sold the majority of its own-label cheese business to its Scottish equivalent First Milk in 2006, along with the creameries and factory that produce most of the products concerned.

[16] Saputo renamed the business under its own brand in July 2019, though Dairy Crest Limited remained the principal legal entity.

[18] Spread brands include Clover, Country Life, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Willow.

At Truro Crown Court in December 2021, Dairy Crest admitted charges relating to a series of incidents of serious pollution between December 2015 and January 2021, including the illegal discharge of "biological sludge" and "suspended solids" from its creamery at Davidstow into the River Inny, Cornwall.

[22] The Creamery closed in May 2014, when production of spreads was concentrated at Kirkby while the research and development facility was transferred to an innovation centre built by the company at Harper Adams University.