A UK dairy delivery business is to begin collecting unwanted or broken toys, mobile phones and laptops while dropping off milk, orange juice and butter in its latest attempt to expand.
The Modern Milkman was founded by entrepreneur Simon Mellin in Burnley, north-west England, in 2019 and delivers groceries to more than 100,000 households across the UK.
The business will now start collecting electronic goods and toys to give to recycling specialist EMR Group, which will repurpose or recycle the items. Consumers pay £2.50 a time for a collection bag.
British households have an average 30 broken tech items each – up from 20 four years ago, according to non-profit organisation Material Focus. Britons dispose of about 2m tonnes of electronic waste every year.
Retailers must now offer take-back schemes and some councils do kerbside collections but it can still be hard to find an easy way to get rid of small items such as cables, chargers and old phones.
“We did a lot of research and there is not really a convenient way to deal with this stuff,” said Mellin. The service has been trialled in four regions and would now be expanded across the group’s operations. It also has plans to tackle other waste such as soft plastics or textiles in future.
“It is about how we build a stronger proposition and make ourselves more valuable to our customers,” he said, with a focus on “sustainable growth rather than blowing the barn doors off”.
Modern Milkman founder Simon Mellin says there is ‘not really a convenient way’ to recycle toys, mobile phones and laptops. Photograph: Supplied
The business operates through local independent suppliers and a collection of franchisees who employ delivery workers across about 40% of the UK – from Newcastle, Preston and Blackburn to London and Bristol.
Mellin, who grew up on a farm and says he left school with no qualifications, admitted the business had endured “a rollercoaster” in its first years as demand for deliveries in the UK ballooned during the pandemic and later fell back.
However, UK sales rose last year and are continuing to increase as the company reaches more homes and offers new services, Mellin said.
The Modern Milkman is also expanding in the US after acquiring local businesses which serve homes in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, and New York. Mellin said sales in the younger US business were also growing “at pace”.
Sales for the group rose 13% to £52m in 2024, driven by expansion in the US, but the company made a pre-tax loss of £6.3m, narrowing from a £10.6m loss in the prior year. Last year, sales rose about 20% as the UK and US markets both saw growth, partly helped by the launch of a loyalty scheme.
Grocery delivery firms have been forced to adapt amid heavy competition and a slowing market since the pandemic. Photograph: Supplied
Grocery delivery firms have been forced to adapt amid heavy competition and a slowing market since the pandemic.
Rapid grocery delivery specialists such as Getir have closed down as big supermarket chains such as Tesco, the Co-op and Sainsbury’s have expanded their own operations and worked with delivery specialists such as Deliveroo and UberEats.
Milk & More, the UK’s biggest specialist dairy delivery service, was sold by yoghurt maker Müller to dairy firm Freshways in January 2024 as the cost of living crisis hit sales.
