Wensleydale Creamery is a cheese manufacturer based in the town of Hawes in North Yorkshire, England. It makes several varieties of cheese, but is most notable as a producer of Yorkshire Wensleydale, a variety of Wensleydale cheese with PGI status. It is a subsidiary of the Canadian dairy company Saputo.
In 1897 Edward Chapman established a commercial creamery in Hawes using traditional techniques and milk bought from local farms. The creamery was taken over in the 1930s by Kit Calvert who sold it to the Milk Marketing Board in 1966. [1] In May 1992, Dairy Crest, a subsidiary of the Milk Marketing Board, closed the Hawes creamery with the loss of 59 jobs. Dairy Crest transferred production of Wensleydale cheese to Yorkshire's traditional rival, Lancashire. Six months later, in November 1992, following many rescue offers, a management buyout took place, led by local businessman John Gibson and the management team. With the help of eleven members of the former workforce, cheese making returned to Wensleydale. [2]
Wensleydale Dairy Products sought to protect the name Yorkshire Wensleydale under an EU regulation; PGI status was awarded in 2013. [1] [3] [4]
The business moved to its current location in Hawes in 2015 and still handcrafts the eponymous cheese with a staff of 230. In 2017, the company made a £5 million investment in its dairy and cheese making facilities. [5] In the financial year ending March 2017, the company sold 4,664 tonnes of cheese. [6] The company estimated revenues of £27.5 million and pre-tax profits of around £1 million in their financial year ending in March 2018. Exports make up about 15% of the revenues and visits by tourists another 10%. [7] The creamery has become a tourist attraction, visited by up to 300,000 people each year.
In January 2018, the company appointed David Salkeld as its new Chairman, replacing Matthew Gribbin who was with the Creamery for ten years. [8]
Wensleydale Creamery has won many awards at The Great Yorkshire Show's Cheese and Dairy Show. In 2018 Yorkshire Wensleydale took the Reserve Supreme Cheese title. The company also received ten gold, four silver and four bronze awards and four Best of Category trophies. [9] In 2017, the creamery had won 22 awards. [10]
In mid 2019, an announcement indicated that cheese waste (primarily whey) from the Creamery, which makes 4,000 tonnes of cheese per year, would help heat 4,000 Yorkshire homes with renewable "green gas". The Leeming biogas plant will use anaerobic digestion to turn the waste into methane biogas which will be burned for conversion into electricity. (The plant was already using this process with dairy waste from an ice cream manufacturing facility.) [11] [12] Any whey residue remaining after the process will be spread in the area to improve the soil. [13]
In July 2021 the business was acquired by Saputo for £23 million. [14]
The Wensleydale Creamery makes several cheeses including Cheddar, Red Leicester and varieties of Wensleydale such as Blue. Their Yorkshire Wensleydale is produced in versions including traditional, smoked, and blended with cranberries. [15]
Cheddar cheese is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset.
Wensleydale is a style of cheese originally produced in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England, but now mostly made in large commercial creameries throughout the United Kingdom. The term "Yorkshire Wensleydale" can only be used for cheese that is made in Wensleydale. The style of cheese originated from a monastery of French Cistercian monks who had settled in northern England, and continued to be produced by local farmers after the monastery was dissolved in 1540. Wensleydale cheese fell to low production in the early 1990s, but its popularity was revitalized by frequent references in the Wallace and Gromit series.
Cottage cheese is a curdled milk product with a mild flavor and a creamy, heterogenous, soupy texture. It is made from skimmed milk by draining curds but retaining some of the whey and keeping the curds loose. An essential step in the manufacturing process distinguishing cottage cheese from other fresh cheeses is the addition of a "dressing" to the curd grains, usually cream, which is mainly responsible for the taste of the product. Cottage cheese is not aged.
Richmondshire was a local government district of North Yorkshire, England, from 1974 to 2023. It covered a large northern area of the Yorkshire Dales including Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, Wensleydale and Coverdale, with the prominent Scot's Dyke and Scotch Corner along the centre. Teesdale lay to the north. With a total area of 1,319 km2, it was larger than seven of the English ceremonial counties.
Havarti or cream havarti is a semisoft Danish cow's milk cheese. It can be sliced, grilled, or melted.
Saputo Dairy UK, formerly Dairy Crest Limited, is a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the Milk Marketing Board. Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK, Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Clover.
Hawes is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, and historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The River Ure north of the town is a tourist attraction in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Leyburn is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, sitting above the northern bank of the River Ure in Wensleydale. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the name was derived from 'Ley' or 'Le' (clearing), and 'burn' (stream), meaning clearing by the stream. Leyburn had a population of 1,844 at the 2001 census increasing to 2,183 at the 2011 Census. The estimated population in 2015 was 2,190.
Saputo Inc. is a Canadian dairy company based in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1954 by the Saputo family. It produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream products, cultured products and dairy ingredients and is one of the top ten dairy processors in the world.
Leeming is a village in the North Yorkshire, England.
Davisco Foods is a company headquartered in Le Sueur, Minnesota. It was founded in 1943. They also own Cambria, the sole producer of quartz work surfaces in the United States.
Murray Goulburn Co-operative Co. Limited was a dairy-processing co-operative corporation. In 2018, following financial difficulties and difficulties with suppliers over sustainable prices, the business assets were sold to Saputo Inc, a publicly-listed Canadian dairy company and later the trading name of the business was changed to AG Warehouse. The co-operative was placed into liquidation in 2020.
Milk Link was a large dairy company in the United Kingdom. It was the UK's largest dairy cooperative and the UK's largest producer of cheese. In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.
Rogue Creamery is an American cheese maker based in Central Point, Oregon founded in 1933. Since 2002, Rogue Creamery has been making artisan cheeses. Founder Tom Vella brought mold, cultures and recipes for Oregon Blue to Central Point from Roquefort, France. Rogue Creamery was the first U.S. cheese maker to export raw-milk cheese to the European Union. Their products can be found in other countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
The Bega Group is an Australian diversified food and drinks company with manufacturing sites in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. Founded as an agricultural cooperative in the town of Bega, New South Wales by their dairy suppliers, it became a public company in 2011 when it listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Close to half of shares publicly traded are still held by Bega's farmer-suppliers. It is currently one of the largest companies in the dairy sector in Australia, with a base milk supply in 2018 of approximately 750 million litres per annum.
Oxford Blue is a variety and brand of blue cheese produced in Burford, Oxfordshire, England in 1995 by French baron Robert Pouget in the tradition of Stilton cheese but with a creamier consistency especially when the cheese was allowed to mature. It is a soft and creamy cheese that has tangy, aromatic and spicy qualities. By 2013, around five tonnes were produced monthly.
The Davidstow Creamery is a manufacturing plant in Cornwall; it makes Cathedral City mature Cheddar cheese. It is the largest cheese factory in the UK, and the largest mature cheddar plant in the world.
