Famous Yorkshire cheesemaker lands supermarket contract
NORTH Yorkshire cheesemaker The Wensleydale Creamery has landed a contract with supermarket chain The Co-operative, which will add more than £1m to its turnover.
The deal will see the Hawes-based firm supply a range of blended cheeses to the supermarket chain, which will be sold under The Co-operative’s own label.
The range will comprise of Wensleydale with cranberries, Wensleydale with papaya and mango, white stilton with apricots, double gloucester with onion and chive, and Fountains Gold cheddar with cracked black pepper and will be sold as 180g doorstep wedges.
David Hartley, The Wensleydale Creamery’s managing director, said: “This is a substantial amount of business which will add £1m to our annual turnover.
“We have secured this deal thanks to The Wensleydale Creamery’s ability to create a high quality product and the blending expertise of our cheese-making master craftsmen.”
Mark Cloudy, The Co-operative’s cheese buyer, said: “The Co-operative prides itself on the range and quality of the goods it sells, and teaming up with the experts at The Wensleydale Creamery will enable The Co-operative to offer a mouth-watering range of high quality blended cheeses to our customers.”
The creamery, which currerntly employs more than 200 people, has recently invested £360,000 in new cutting and packing equipment to cope with new orders.
The business prides itself on being the home of real Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese and uses traditional methods and time-honoured recipes using milk from local farms.
Wensleydale Cheese has a historic pedigree with it first being made in the Dale in 1150 by Cistercian monks.
It was thanks to a management buyout in 1992 following the closure of the creamery that cheese-making in Wensleydale was reborn.
Wensleydale Dairy Products, the creamery’s parent company, is seeking protected food name status for Yorkshire Wensleydale to differentiate it from other Wensleydale Cheese on the market.
The submission for Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) for Yorkshire Wensleydale is currently being processed in Brussels.
