Creamery wins character deal
A NORTH-EAST creamery is preparing to cash in on a new wave of Wallace and Gromit mania as the plasticine heroes return to the nation’s screens.
The Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes, which will open a £3m processing facility in 2011, unveiled plans for a licensed snack food product featuring the hapless heroes alongside other character-led launches. It also plans more premium lines under its Perfect Partner strategy, linking cheese with iconic brands.
The creamery was the first to launch a Wensleydale and Ocean Spray cranberry cheese followed by cheddar with Colman’s mustard. Products to come include red Leicester with Lea & Perrins and cheddar with Guinness.
It hopes the new ranges will earn it a bigger slice of the high-value pre-packed cheese market, although marketing manager Tom Metson stressed it would not abandon its roots as a craft manufacturer of high quality regional cheeses.
The dairy, which employs 200 people, is supplied by a pool of 40 Dales farmers.
He revealed that the company had signed a major licensing deal with another world famous North-east brand, which will feature on pre-packed cheeses from 2009.
Licensed products are now worth 10% of the company’s £17m turnover.
“We run at 75-80% capacity for nine months of the year, but 125% for three months over Christmas, so we need more year-round business and more volume in the prepack, which is where the new licenses come in, otherwise we are condemned on a deli, which is only 10% of the cheese market and declining,” said Mr Metson.
The Wallace & Gromit debut will cash in on pre-publicity for the latest big-screen instalment, A Matter of Loaf and Death, due out next year.
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