Wensleydale: Wedge with an edge

However, a committed band were quite simply not prepared to let the near millennium-old cheese-making tradition die in the dale.

A management buyout was organised, backed by benefactor and Dales businessman John Gibson, who remained chairman of the firm until 2006 and is still a shareholder.

Among those who also participated in the buyout was current managing director David Hartley.

Mr Hartley has been in the dairy industry since he left school and has seen some significant changes to both the sector and, in particular, to Wensleydale cheese during his life.

Since the buyout the creamery, based just outside Hawes in the utterly magnificent Wensleydale, has been featured in a Hollywood blockbuster, begun expanding into foreign markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East and become the absolute epicentre of the area in which it is based, both economically and socially, where it turns over £27m a year.

The business is in a far better place than the day that fateful MBO was signed but Mr Hartley, displaying the dogged determination to drive things forward that Yorkshire business is renowned for, is far from satisfied.

“I still don’t think we have gone far enough,” he tells Yorkshire Vision. “Yes, we have done well and are extremely proud of it, but you only get what you put in – we need to keep that motivation.”

A large part of the battle for the creamery has concerned the name and provenance of Wensleydale. A campaign to get the European Union to award the cheese so-called Protected Designation of Origin status means that now only cheese produced in Wensleydale may be called Yorkshire Wensleydale.

The Yorkshire Post backed the fight with its Uniquely Yorkshire campaign and in 2013 success was achieved when the EU awarded the status.

Mr Hartley adds: “It was so important because we have protection for Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese. That took us seven years to get and clearly The Yorkshire Post backed us well on that.

“The essence of having it is because other people within the country make Wensleydale. It is made in great amounts in Cheshire and Shropshire and while it is not for us to make comment on quality, we felt the provenance was very important and that it was up to us to be passionate and ensure Wensleydale does come from Wensleydale.

“People are genuinely surprised when they find out that you can buy this cheese which is made elsewhere. Our message is that Yorkshire Wensleydale is the genuine product.”

The move was ultimately very successful for the company’s bottom line.

“Genuinely more of the retailers are interested in having our cheese and offering recognition of that within the packaging,” Mr Hartley says.

“It has allowed us to take more of the market. That’s what we are famous for and it means we can grow the market.

“It also gives us strength within the business if we can command that extra share of the market. We want to have more of the market but also to grow it.”

The milk used to create Wensleydale cheese comes from 41 farmers around the dale.

In what is an extremely turbulent market at present, the creamery has provided a lifeline for these embattled farms during hard times.

“They are reliant on us, yes, but it is a proper partnership really,” Mr Hartley adds.

“The average number of litres per farmer is 600,000, which is about half the national average.

“We are very proud to buy milk from smaller local dairy farmers. I always have a sense of confidence when I drive home or to work and see a herd of cows which I know supplies us.

“Clearly the milk is very important to us. We would describe ourselves as a community-based company. We employ a lot of local people, including a lot of Eastern European people who have settled in the area.

“Our milk is bought locally. We like to be able to develop people and offer career progression within the business.

“I genuinely believe there are great opportunities for dairy farmers in this part of the world, particularly young farmers. We need to encourage them to join the sector.

“I think there is going to be a recovery. Nationally milk production has dropped off.”

Part of the creamery’s offer includes a large, purpose-built visitor centre which attracts coach-loads of tourists from all over the world. Today it contributes 10 per cent of the business’s turnover.

“We use it as shop window for the brand, to showcase the versatility we have and educate people about cheese-making. It helps us sell those key messages to business when they come visit,” says Mr Hartley.

“We are always mindful of the fact that people choose to come to Hawes as we are not really near any great population.”

Last year the firm consolidated its cheese production sites. It now produces all of its cheese from Hawes, having previously split production between there and a secondary base at Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon.

The latter site is now charged with the important tasks of the blending and packaging work.

The worldwide interest in the iconic cheese sparked by the Wallace and Gromit film The Wrong Trousers now sees Wensleydale do business all over the world.

Fifteen per cent of turnover goes abroad, a figure worth around £3m in terms of its sales activity.

Mr Hartley adds: “As a business we supply predominantly UK retail customers but also industrial partners for cheese for ingredients products – wholesalers, speciality shops, farm shops.

“In terms of export markets they are all over the world, Canada, USA, Europe, Far East and Middle East.

“We are doing good business in France at the moment with a retailer called Carrefour. That seems to be doing very well for us.”

While North America is the biggest market there is still increasingly keen interest from the Middle and Far East.

“We are working with a company in Singapore, developing sales there,” Mr Hartley says.

“We are currently shipping containers of cheese to Saudi Arabia’s Abbar; we found them through the Gulf Food Show. They are also quite interested in products like yoghurts. Shelf-life is not an issue; you are only losing two or three days in transit.

“We have had a lot of support from UKTI. We have partnered with them as opposed to taking advantage. We have also been invited to take part in a trade mission to Serbia.”

Mr Hartley believes that food and drink can play a strong role in the Northern Powerhouse. “It is genuine food, so linked to agriculture. Beef, lamb, cheese, beer – all direct products of agriculture. You have got everything here.”

For a company involved in food production, the Brexit vote was always going to have profound implications. “We were quite in favour of remaining; my personal view was that we should remain.

“We have just started trading harder and stronger in Europe. Selling to France at the moment is like selling to a shop in Hawes, you just put it on a lorry and away it goes. For non-EU countries there is all sorts of paperwork to do, we are subject to import duties, tariff duties, regulations and so on. More of the same for us was a good scenario.

“Having said that, we are where we are and we will get on with it and make it work. We trade with people; if someone wants to buy and we want to sell, we will make it happen.”