The Modern Milkman apologises after Sheffield customers misled over source of milk

The Modern Milkman recently began delivering milk and other groceries to homes across Sheffield and has already signed up more than 2,000 customers.

But some people were falsely told the milk came from Our Cow Molly’s farm in Dungworth, when it is actually supplied by Dales Dairies near Skipton, some 60 miles outside Sheffield.

Our Cow Molly owner Eddie Andrew says he only learned about this when people started contacting him to say how glad they were to be getting deliveries to their door via The Modern Milkman.

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When he posted on Facebook to clarify that the farm’s milk always comes with its logo stamped on the foil bottle tops, numerous other people got in touch to say they had been wrongly told by The Modern Milkman’s sales reps that their milk would be coming from Our Cow Molly.

Mr Andrew said: “They’ve been telling people on their doorsteps that they can deliver this product from a local dairy farm and getting people to sign up on that basis.

"We’re just thankful that lots of people in Sheffield have come forward and said it's been mis-sold to them in this way.

"A lot of people say they’re delivering local milk without defining what local means, but we've never had anything like this before. This is not fair on people who want to support local Sheffield businesses.

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"We’ve been a dairy farm supplying milk to folk in Sheffield since 1947 and people in the city are probably as upset as we are that they’ve been tricked like this.”

Our Cow Molly delivers its own milk to homes in Sheffield and its milk is also available in glass and plastic bottles in some local shops and via the veg box scheme run by Regather.

The Modern Milkman’s CEO Simon Mellin apologised for what he described as a ‘miscommunication’.

He said the company had originally planned to work with Our Cow Molly in Sheffield and its team were encouraged to learn about the farm, which he described as a ‘great operation’, by watching a feature on BBC’s Countryfile.

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That didn't work out and the firm ended up using the ‘next nearest’ dairy farm but while Mr Mellin insists that no employees were ever told Our Cow Molly was supplying it, he accepted that some appeared to have ‘jumped to this conclusion’ and mistakenly given customers false information.

"As soon as we found out what had happened we acted immediately and re-briefed every member of our team about the facts, and I'm very confident this has stopped,” he said.

"Hands up, we got it wrong, and I understand why they’re upset but this is absolutely not what we're about. I set this company up to help businesses like Our Cow Molly connect with consumers and grow, and this has come from a good place.

"It’s just been a miscommunication and the fact that it’s blown up like this is really disheartening.”

A Sheffield Council spokeswoman said Trading Standards had received a complaint which it was investigating.