American almond giant Blue Diamond is gearing up for a major push to convince Brits to swap the white stuff for something altogether nuttier.

The California company will make its UK debut with a three-strong range of almond milks under the Almond Breeze brand later this month, and plans to become “the undisputed category leader in almond milk in the UK”.

It says it wants to help drive UK consumption of almond milk to US levels - where about 9% of the population regularly consume almond milk - within three years.

At present, the UK market for almond milk is in its infancy, although it made its first step towards the mainstream at the beginning of the year, when soya market leader Alpro launched an almond and a hazelnut milk into the mults as part of a sustainability drive.

Blue Diamond is launching almond milks in original, chocolate and unsweetened flavours, which will sit in both chilled and ambient fixtures. It claims its unsweetened variant will be the first in the UK, and hopes this will enable Almond Breeze to stand out from the rest of the dairy-free milk fixture.

“Our unsweetened almond milk will be the healthiest SKU on the market, with 60% fewer calories than skimmed milk and 50% fewer calories than soya,” a spokeswoman said.

Blue Diamond has struck a distribution deal with Kallo Foods to sell Almond Breeze in the UK. Its milks will go on sale in the mults at the end of June, with a rollout to health food shops later in the summer.

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