Dairy Crest shift leaves sour taste for pensioners

Dairy Crest is set to save millions of pounds a year on pension payments after switching benefit increases to a lower inflation metric. The FTSE 350 firm, responsible for final salary pensions for thousands of former milkmen, said that pensions will now rise each year in line with consumer prices inflation (CPI), rather than the typically steeper retail prices index (RPI), meaning pensioners are likely to get lower payments. Dairy Crest has previously tried to address its pension deficit by pledging a £150m cheddar stockpile to the fund.