Cumbria dairy supplier to Michelin-starred restaurants invests £150,000 to meet demand
Family-owned Winter Tarn Dairy in Cumbria has invested £150,000 to meet demand for its butter.
The dairy farm has invested tens of thousands of pounds in a new production facility and specialist packaging machinery to meet increasing demand for its salted and unsalted food service butter packs.
Following on from its launch in September 2021 at the Restaurant Show in London, the team secured several key contracts, including with West Moreland Services which operates six outlets across England, for their 10g butter portions.
The team also continues to deliver its butter to nine of the 11 Michelin-starred restaurants in Cumbria.
To meet demand, the team moved production from their original location in the Eden valley nine-months ago and relocated to a purpose-built factory unit on the outskirts of Kendal.
They invested £150,000 in an array of updated production machinery, including two walk-in fridges, state of the art butter churners, and the specialist Corazza FB220 butter moulding and portion wrapping machine.
Harry Jackson, who oversees production at the farm, said the new machinery will increase production capacity, from packing 30,000 10g portions a week, which was previously done by hand, to 12,000 in an hour, equating to between 200 and 250 portions a minute.
Winter Tarn Dairy's butter won three-star gold at the Great Taste Awards in 2012, three years after it was founded by Jackson's parents, Jeremy and Tricia Jackson. Jackson said they have entered awards this year, including Great British Food Awards and Great Taste Awards.
The farm receives its milk from small herd dairy farms in neighbouring Lancashire; Balmers Dairy in Burnley, and Threlfall Dairy in Blackburn. Jackson said the farms set the price for the milk, enabling them to continue to farm in the way that they want to, while giving staff a fair wage.
Jackson said: "It's really exciting to expand, and it's great to see that people are opting for better quality food. We want to get back to original farming roots, and we look forward to seeing where the future takes us."
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