Creamery hopes for gold-top returns from more visitors

Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, opened the doors of its new-look visitor centre this week.

The centre now comprises a specialist cheese shop, deli and coffee shop and forms part of the business's ambitious 800,000 expansion.

Bosses at the firm decided to substantially expanding its popular visitor centre in order to meet increasing demand from its customers.

The expansion has seen the popular cheese shop tripled in size to provide a more spacious sales area and more room for cheese tastings too.

The deli's offerings include more than 100 quality regional food products – all coming from local suppliers.

The new 1897 Coffee Shop can seat 72 and floor to ceiling windows lets visitors look out over the neighbouring countryside.

Even the milk served with the coffee and teas comes from

local farms in the Dale.

The new centre is benefiting the local economy in other ways too – having recruited an extra four staff.

This takes the total number of staff at the creamery to 43, with more to follow during the next few months.

Managing director David Hartley said: "The Wensleydale Creamery is helping strengthen the sustainability of the Dales as a tourist destination through the substantial expansion of its visitor centre."

Mr Hartley added that he was delighted with the expansion and that the firm was looking forward to welcoming more visitors this summer.

"This is only the first phase of our ambitious expansion plans with much more to come in the late summer and autumn as further improvements are completed," he added.

The centre is already one of the largest tourist attractions in the Yorkshire Dales with more than 200,000 people a year coming through its doors.

The Creamery company now hopes the expansions will attract 50,000 more.

Only 10 days ago, the firm's trademark Wensleydale cheese, produced with local milk, was confirmed as an icon for the county in a survey carried out for the tourism agency Visit York.

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