Artisan cheesemaker sold in pre-pack deal

Hartington Creamery has been sold in a pre-pack deal for just £56,000, TheBusinessDesk.com understands.

The company has been sold to a firm run by a connected party.

Hartington Creamery is a Peak District manufacturer of cheese which can trace its history back to the 1870s. The company, whose original creamery was set up by the Duke of Devonshire in 1870, has been based at Pikehall Farm in Matlock since 2012 and makes a range of cheeses including Dovedale Blue and its own Stilton. Indeed, the firm is known as the smallest Stilton cheese producer in the world.

All the company’s cheese is handmade on site by artisan cheesemakers.

In recent years, the company has diversified to produce its Hartington Whey Gin and Vodka.

The company’s problems first began as Covid hit, when it lost 80% of its sales after director Claire Milner resigned and closed her three shops and wholesale business, Hartington’s biggest customer, which made the search for retail customers even more vital. The firm took out a Bounce Back Loan to bridge cash flow issues, while landlord and shareholder Robert Gosling continued to support the business with further loans without taking any salary until April 2022.

Hartington Creamery battled through Covid, but was impacted significantly by inflation, with milk prices increasing by 60% alone. The company found that it wasn’t able to increase cheese prices quick enough to recover these cost increases which resulted in not meeting the profit forecast for the year.

In early 2023 the two shareholders, through their legal representatives, started corresponding with the directors and their advisers, questioning the liquidity of the business while requesting their loans be repaid.

The company filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on May 12. Currie Young was appointed as administrator on May 19.

In its latest accounts, made up to 31 March 2022, Hartington Creamery posted a loss of almost £550,000. At the time, the company employed 13 people.

Hartington Creamery went into administration owing almost £781,000 to creditors, almost half of this to landlord and shareholder R&L Gosling.