Cheesemaker doubles smoking capacity with new investment

Wensleydale Creamery has made a significant investment in its natural cheese smoking capabilities with the addition of a brand-new cheese smoke house.

The Hawes creamery’s new smoke house will allow the business to more than double its current output of naturally smoked cheese.

The new facility launch follows an increase of consumer demand for naturally smoked products, with Google Trends data highlighting a 43% increase in searches for ‘smoked cheese’ in the UK in the last quarter alone, and UK sales showing 5% value growth.

Alongside imparting a distinct smokiness to the cheese, smoking serves as a natural preservation method that doesn’t require any artificial flavours, colours or preservatives.

The creamery’s latest smoking technology enables the Dales cheesemaker to increase its naturally smoked cheese range with a variety of natural smoked wood flavours such as oak, beech and hickory which are FSC certified and sourced sustainably from managed woodlands.

Sandra Bell, marketing manager at The Wensleydale Creamery, said, “As consumers seek new flavours in their everyday shop, we’ve already started to see an increased interest and demand for natural smoked cheese which continues to grow in popularity.

“Our investment in the business’ smoking capabilities marks a major milestone for us, and we’re committed to innovating in this area. By more than doubling our smoking capacity, we hope to be able to grow our business further.”