Lex Autolease has won a £35 million, 3-year sole supply deal with Dairy Crest.

Lex Autolease will be supplying Dairy Crest with a minimum of 1,500 vehicles, including a 500-strong car fleet made up of Audi, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen models.

A further 1,000 new vans will form Dairy Crest's milk delivery fleet and will be a mix of Ford and Mercedes chassis cabs.

“Lex Autolease have been able to provide us with the total solution for our fleet needs including extensive commercial vehicle expertise through their specialist commercial vehicle unit," said Ian Sorensen, warehouse and distribution category manager at Dairy Crest.

"By consolidating our suppliers and by working in close consultation with Lex Autolease’s team of experts, we have been able to effectively increase efficiency and drive down our fleet costs. As a company we already have a great working relationship with Lloyds Banking Group and it is has been good to extend this further with Lex Autolease.”

The new vehicles will be leased on a contract-hire basis using in-house maintenance facilities and mobile engineers contracted by Lex Autolease.

The Dairy Crest account will also be assigned an Internal Fleet Manager who will analyse fleet data and make recommendations that will deliver continuous improvement for the fleet.