A conversation with Simon Mellin, CEO of Modern Milkman

What started as an idea to “bring back milk rounds and make them brilliant” in 2018, has turned Modern Milkman into a multi-million pound enterprise that recently secured £10m in growth funding and is rapidly growing in the UK and US.

As a London Law Collective client, we were keen to find out more, so took the time to catch-up with CEO Simon Mellin about how Modern Milkman started and how it’s going.

We asked Simon to tell us a little about how Modern Milkman started and what inspired him build the company?

Simon Mellin’s father was a butcher and his grandfather a farmer, so you could say that food and farming have been part of his life from an early age.

Growing up in East Lancashire, and after working in motorsport for a few years, Simon took on a milk round and quickly saw some of the problems that faced the trade. He was struck that the traditional milk round – once a mainstay of British life – was slowly disappearing. Not because it didn’t work, but because it hadn’t evolved. Drivers memorised routes, customers left handwritten notes in bottles, and everything relied on manual systems that, although quaint, were inefficient and didn’t give the customer choice or agency in what they were buying.

But it wasn’t only that. Over time, Simon also became increasingly aware of just how commoditised the food system had become – creating waste, inefficiencies and a disconnect with the consumer.

Simon saw an opportunity: take a model that was already community-based and rebuild it using technology to make it fit modern expectations. After all, we live in a world of Deliveroo and Uber and customers today ultimately want control, flexibility and convenience.

So Modern Milkman bought its first milk round in 2018 and launched its online platform in 2019, creating a digital platform layered onto a local delivery network – a two-sided marketplace that centrally manages the offer but operates a franchise model regionally.

Growth was steady – and then COVID hit. Customers saw the value of shopping online during lockdown and the business grew fourfold. That period was intense, but it validated the Modern Milkman model and set the business up for the future.

Where does Simon think the business is today and what will the recent investment allow Modern Milkman to achieve?

Today, Modern Milkman covers around 40% of the UK and is continuing to expand into the southwest and southeast. The business is also operating in five US states, so the potential for growth is huge.

The recent £10 million investment from Salica gives Modern Milkman the ability to accelerate that expansion, both geographically and in terms of its offering. While milk is still core, the longer-term vision is much bigger.

Modern Milkman wants to evolve its platform so that it helps households live more sustainably and conveniently – whether that’s through recycling collections, offering customers the chance to donate their food deliveries to charities and food banks, reducing waste, or making it easier to just “do the right thing” when there are  so many other things to think about in a family household.

What trends and external factors does Simon think are influencing Modern Milkman’s business planning and future?

One of the biggest tensions Simon highlights is the balance between convenience and sustainability. Services like Uber and Deliveroo have completely reshaped expectations around speed and ease – but often at environmental cost especially as point to point delivery becomes increasingly unsustainable.

At the same time, consumer behaviour is shifting. Platforms like Vinted show the growth in the vintage and traditional product sector, demonstrating how people are willing to embrace reuse and more circular habits. Modern Milkman is trying to sit at that intersection: keeping convenience high while embedding sustainability into the everyday.

The company is also keen to demonstrate its own impact. As a certified B Corp, the company measures its social and environmental impact, supports food banks with surplus donations, gives customers ways to donate unused toys at Christmas time and offers its staff days off to volunteer every year.

We asked Simon what it’s like to work at Modern Milkman?

The business now has around 140 employees, with operations delivered through a franchise model.

Simon describes the culture as fast-paced and ambitious. It’s a scaling business, so change is constant. Teams are encouraged to be curious, brave and comfortable with pivoting when needed. Backed by a love of data, they support experimentation, innovation and people who like to make things happen.

What was it like working with the team at LLC and would Simon recommend working with them?

Simon spoke positively about the experience of working with the LLC team, describing it as smooth and collaborative. The engagement felt aligned and well managed – and yes, he would recommend working with them.

What started as an idea to “bring back milk rounds and make them brilliant” has evolved into something much bigger. Modern Milkman isn’t just about milk – it’s about rethinking how households operate, and making food sustainability practical, scalable and genuinely convenient.

For more information about Modern Milkman visit themodernmilkman.co.uk