Dairy company launches cheese products as part of investment in new brand

North Yorkshire-based company Wensleydale Dairy Products has launched “The Yorkshire Creamery” brand with three cheeses aimed at championing high quality and traditional recipes.

Wensleydale Dairy Products is the parent group of the Wensleydale Creamery, in Hawes, and it intends to invest £1m in the new brand.

Rolling out regionally in major supermarkets this month, The Yorkshire Creamery is offering a selection of cheeses, with Yorkshire Butter following in early 2020.

The brand is aiming to disrupt a crowded cheese category through great tasting, award-winning products combined with lots of personality.

The new range includes three cheeses, available in 320g and 200g pack sizes: Extra Mature Yorkshire Cheddar – distinctively strong and rugged and typically aged for 15 months; Yorkshire Red – distinctively nutty and typically aged for 10 months; Double Yorkshire – distinctively smooth and buttery, typically aged for seven months.

The branding, and packaging feature a Yorkshire cow, highlighting the focus on local milk and farming.

The brand is a key element of Wensleydale Dairy Products’ ambitious growth plans and will help to sustain rural farming in the local community. The business has pledged to invest in detailed consumer and market research, product development and marketing to support its latest products.

David Hartley, managing director of Wensleydale Dairy Products, said: “Just like our much-loved Yorkshire Wensleydale cheeses, The Yorkshire Creamery is a range of good, honest, tasty, authentic products made with character and integrity.

“We’re extremely proud of our surroundings, as well as our people – the passion and care of our farmers for their herd, the grass they graze on, the attention and tradition that goes into making our dairy products – that is the difference consumers will taste when they try our cheeses.

“Ninety-nine per cent of British households buy cheese and more than half of total cheese sales are generated by Cheddar. It takes 10 litres of milk to make one kilogram of Cheddar, which is why the quality of the milk used is so important to the flavour.

“It tastes like it ought to and that makes every day eating just that little bit better. People don’t want to settle for mediocre lunches, dinners or snacks. They want food that tastes like it should, and which isn’t over-processed.

“We’ve listened to our consumers and know that they want much more than just great tasting products, they want to know farmers and animals have been treated well in the process and that’s what we are doing with The Yorkshire Creamery.”

James Pratt, a farmer from Studdah Farm, Bellerby who supplies the Creamery with Yorkshire milk, said: “We’re proud to produce high quality Yorkshire milk for The Yorkshire Creamery, which is helping us and farmers like us build a sustainable foundation for the next generation, my son is already running around in his wellies eager to help.

“The Yorkshire Creamery cheeses taste fantastic, and look brilliant as well.”

The products will initially be available from selected Morrisons, Booths, Tesco, Asda and Co-op stores, as well as the Wensleydale Creamery Visitor Centre Cheese Shop, in Hawes.

Wensleydale Dairy Products has been trading for 27 years and employs at least 220 people. The company buys milk from 45 local farmers and is looking to expand its supply base.

About 350,000 people a year come to the firm’s Visitor Centre in Hawes and the dairy also has a blending and packing facility in Kirkby Malzeard.