Prince Louis fuels thirst for British-made baby formula
HE MAY not even be a year old, but it seems Prince Louis’s drinking habits are contributing to a boom for Britishmade baby formula.
One flourishing manufacturer in the Lake District, which supplies milk and porridge to Kensington Palace for Louis, has just signed a £85million export deal with China.
Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, nanny to Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, contacted Kendal Nutricare last November after reading press reports about powdered infant milk becoming contaminated by melamine in the plastic packaging, leading to the death of six babies in China.
After being breastfed, Prince George and Princess Charlotte were weaned on formula made abroad. But now the Cumbrian company supplies its Kendamil follow-on milk and oat porridge – which fittingly carries a crown logo – for Louis, who turns one later this month.
The Cambridges were so happy with the products that Pippa Matthews, who gave birth last October, has also put in an order, along with Susie Wilshire, the maternity nurse who looked after George and Amal Clooney’s twins.
Ms Borrallo, who has been working for the Cambridges since Prince George was born in 2013, got in touch last November after Ross McMahon, the company’s chief executive, met the Prince of Wales and extolled the virtues of his full-cream baby formula, made with all British ingredients.
Mr McMahon told The Sunday Telegraph his business has grown by 400 per cent since he bought the factory for £1 in 2015. Last year, he signed a fiveyear contract worth £85million with Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Company.
He says the secret to his success is that unlike other infant milks, his is fattened with cream rather than “fat filled” with vegetable and palm oil and its omega 3 and 6 is derived from pure marine algae rather than fish oil, which means it is vegetarian and allergy-free.