 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Organic Dairy products |
| Founder | Rachel and Gareth Rowlands |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United Kingdom |
| Products | yogurt, milk, rice pudding, cream, crème fraiche |
| Owner | BSA International SA |
Number of employees | 121 |
| Parent | Lactalis |
| Website | rachelsorganic.co.uk |
Rachel's is an organic dairy products company based in Aberystwyth, Wales. Founded by local farmers but now a subsidiary of French company Lactalis, it was the United Kingdom's first certified organic dairy. [1]
The Williams family took over Brynllys farm in Ceredigion, West Wales, in 1942, and started developing a herd of Guernsey cows. Dinah Williams was the daughter of Abel Jones, Professor of Agriculture at Aberystwyth University, and his wife Bessie Brown MBE, the university’s first dairy instructor and organiser of the Women's Land Army in Wales during World War I. After World War II, Dinah often appeared with Lady Eve Balfour, trying to dissuade farmers from using artificial fertilisers and pesticides, leading to the formation of the Soil Association. [1]
As a result, in 1952 Brynllys became one of the earliest members of the Soil Association, and established the farm as the first certified organic dairy farm. [1] After the death of her husband in 1966, Williams handed over the farm to her middle daughter Rachel and son-in-law Gareth Rowlands. [1] At this time they were supplying premium organic milk to the Milk Marketing Board.
In the mid-1980s, after a scriptwriter for BBC Radio 4 visited Brynllys, it inspired a storyline in The Archers when Pat and Tony Archer “went organic” at Bridge Farm. In 2009, Teleri Bevan published a book They Dared to Make a Difference, detailing the lives of the three family generations at Brynllys. [2]
The company was born out of the need for farming diversification. When heavy snow hit Aberystwyth in 1982, preventing milk tankers from reaching the isolated farm, the Rowlands were forced to find other uses for their milk. Using an old butter churn, they made cream and butter by hand. After the snow cleared, the Rowlands discovered they had inadvertently created a market for their dairy goods and they were spurred on to extend their range of products. Rachel began researching old recipes, including yogurt, and the Rachel’s Dairy brand was born as a company in 1984.
The home for the company’s production stayed on Brynllys farm, but between 1985 and 1990 the company experienced considerable growth, which resulted in a purpose-built dairy being built at Glanyrafon, Aberystwyth.
In 1999, the company was bought for £1.5M in an agreed takeover by United States dairy company Horizon Organic, their only presence in the UK. [1] In 2004, Horizon was bought by Dean Foods based in Texas, the largest dairy distributor in the USA.
The company dropped the “organic” from its name in 2009 [3] becoming simply Rachel’s. However, all products remained organic and include milk, butter, rice pudding, cream, crème fraiche and a variety of yogurts. In 2019 the name returned to Rachel's Organic. [4]
On the 28 July 2010, it was confirmed that Dean Foods as part of their restructuring programme had agreed to sell a package of European dairy products companies including Rachel's to BSA International of Belgium, [5] the holding company for France-based Lactalis Groupe, which itself will take operational control of Rachel's. [6] The company has since moved production of all of its rice-based desserts to France. [7]
In May 2012, Rachel's was moved into Lactalis Nestlé Chilled Dairy (LNCD), which is a joint venture with Nestlé. Lactalis owns 60% of LNCD and Nestlé 40%. [8] Hence Rachel's was included in a boycott related to baby milk products by the Lactalis Nestlé from 2012 onwards. [9]
Rachel’s has won numerous awards for the quality of its products and its innovation including Great Taste awards, [10] and Wales the True Taste awards. [11] In 2007 Rachel’s was recognised as one of Britain’s most environmentally friendly brands in a YouGov poll conducted by Marketing Week, [12] and in 2009 was given Coolbrand status in the UK list of Superbrands. [13] In July 2010, Rachel's received eight awards in the Dairy Produce Category at the Royal Welsh Show. [14] Rachel's received a Gold award at Wales the True Taste Food & Drink Awards 2010, for their Wholemilk Gooseberry Yogurt. [15]
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators". In many countries, it is sold in several grades depending on the total butterfat content. It can be dried to a powder for shipment to distant markets, and contains high levels of saturated fat.
Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food around the world such as yogurt, cheese, milk and butter. A facility that produces dairy products is a dairy. Dairy products are consumed worldwide to varying degrees. Some people avoid some or all dairy products because of lactose intolerance, veganism, environmental concerns, other health reasons or beliefs.
Lactogal is a Portuguese food products company focused on dairy products, milk, fruit juice and mineral water. It is headquartered in Porto and is placed among the twenty largest agro-food European companies. It has major factories in Oliveira de Azeméis and Vila do Conde.
Silk is an American brand of dairy-substitute products currently owned by Danone after it purchased WhiteWave Foods in 2016.
Valio Ltd is a Finnish manufacturer of dairy products and one of the largest companies in Finland. Valio's products include cheese, powdered ingredients, butter, yogurt and milk. It is Finland's largest milk processor, producing 85% of the country's milk.
Bulla Dairy Foods is an Australian dairy company that manufactures a national and export range of ice cream, table cream, yoghurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, and imitation cream under various brands. The business was established in 1910 and subsequently became a partnership among three inter-related families, who still continue to own and operate the business. The company's name was established from the origin of place in Victoria, Australia and the business has continued for more than 100 years. Bulla Dairy Foods has expanded internationally, exporting its products to 17 countries, as well as supplying their products nationally within Australia to supermarket retailers. The company employs more than 600 people across three manufacturing sites across Victoria in Colac, Dandenong, and Mulgrave and a head office and distribution centre in Derrimut, Melbourne. In 2015, Bulla Dairy Foods released a new campaign with the tagline "Unfakeable" to emphasise the company's Australian heritage.
Beatrice Foods Canada Ltd. is a dairy unit of Lactalis Canada based in Toronto. The Canadian unit of Beatrice Foods was founded in 1969 and separated from its American parent firm, Beatrice Foods in 1978. The Beatrice trademark in Canada is owned by Lactalis Canada.
Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited is a dairy products co-operative in Canada producing butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, whipped cream and lactose free milk for retail, foodservice, industrial and export markets. Gay Lea also produces a new product called "Spreadables", which is a spreadable butter, made as a canola oil and butter blend, that tastes like butter but is spreadable directly out of the fridge. The company is based in Mississauga, Ontario and owned and operated by Ontario milk producers, currently representing approximately thirty-five per cent of all Ontario dairy farms.
Dairy Farmers Pty Ltd, originally established in 1900, whose parent company is Australian-owned Bega Cheese, is distributed mainly in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. The core products sold under Dairy Farmers brand are fresh milk and UHT "long-life" milk, as well as various other dairy snacks. It supplies products to local and international markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Yeo Valley is a British dairy company that was founded in 1994. The headquarters are in Somerset, United Kingdom. The Yeo Valley corporation is owned by the Mead family. In 2020, Yeo Valley Organic was the 48th biggest grocery brand in the United Kingdom and the third largest yogurt brand in the UK.
Strained yogurt, Greek yogurt, yogurt cheese, sack yogurt or kerned yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove most of its whey, resulting in a thicker consistency than normal unstrained yogurt, while still preserving the distinctive sour taste of yogurt. Like many types, strained yogurt is often made from milk enriched by boiling off some water content, or by adding extra butterfat and powdered milk. In Europe and North America, it is often made from low-fat or fat-free cow's milk. In Iceland, a similar product named skyr is made.
Stonyfield Farm, also simply called Stonyfield, is an organic yogurt maker and dairy company located in Londonderry, New Hampshire, United States. Stonyfield Farm was founded by Samuel Kaymen in 1983, on a 19th-century farmstead in Wilton, New Hampshire, as an organic farming school. The company makes the second leading brand of organic yogurt in North America, with 13.3% of the market.
Magnolia is a food and beverage brand owned by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and used by its various subsidiaries. The brand was commercially established by SMC as an ice cream brand in 1925.
Groupe Lactalis S.A. is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A.
Oak is an Australian pasteurised flavoured milk brand owned by a French multinational corporation, Lactalis. It was first established in 1967 in New South Wales, as the general dairy brand of the Raymond Terrace Co-operative and its successor the Hunter Valley Co-operative Dairy Company. The origin of the Oak brand goes back to 1903. Oak flavoured milk was launched in Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria in 1998. It was discontinued in Victoria in 2006 but relaunched in 2010. Oak launched in Western Australia in October 2013.
Lactel is a brand of French company Lactalis specializing in organic milk products.
Frosty Paws, formerly Pet79 and Fido Freeze, is a brand of ice cream, specifically formulated and sold for dogs. It is produced by Nestlé, under their Nestlé Dreyer's Ice Cream Company ice cream unit, branded under the Purina brand name.
Dinah Williams born Dinah Eiluned Lyon Jones was a British organic farmer. She was an early member of the Soil Association and she owned the first Welsh dairy farm to be recognised as organic.
