Wyke Farms Awarded £1.3m Grant

Wincanton packing and distribution site to benefit

 Wyke Farms, the UK’s largest independent cheese producers and exporters, announce a £1.3 million grant that has been secured from DEFRA to support the companies 5 year plan for growth. The grant will fund a new cheese store and an extension to its packing and distribution depot, both based in Wincanton, Somerset.

The improved site will enable the company to pick and pack up to 25,000 tonnes of cheddar for world markets.  Included in the plans are increased cheese storage to age more Ivys Vintage cheddar for export markets. It will also include a new production line to facilitate a more diverse range of products; this is important to the company who have ambitious export focused products planned for 2019 with longer than traditional shelf lives and differing formats for different regions. The site wll also house another state of the art flow wrap line, using the best technology in Europe this will mean the company can further improve packing line yields and shift outputs. In addition, the work flow will benefit from upskilling as manual labour will be replaced with skilled roles. The investment will also help  the company to continue to pay a sustainable milk price to its 123 supplying dairy farmers.

Wyke Farms have publicly shared development plans for a new dairy on their Bruton based site, the two projects form the basis of the Wyke Farms 5 year plan for growth. Their export studies, show potential in all regions.

Richard Clothier, third generation family member and Managing Director, comments: “Our two year Brexit growth plan to get us to £100 million sales won’t happen without investing. We are not banking the currency advantage, but consciously using the money to invest in tastings etc to drive growth in regions across the world.”

Wyke Farms has been producing its award-winning cheddar to their secret family recipe for over 150 years and has grown to become one of the largest family-owned cheese makers in Britain selling over 15,000 tonnes annually to over 160 countries around the world.

For more information, images and interview requests, contact: paloma@connectedpr.com/ Tel: 07955 944 111.