In this exclusive interview, Windyridge Cheese md Melvin Glynn said the new 1,500m2 facility in Wincanton, Somerset, had enabled the business to “grow even further” and offer “more varieties and formats”.
He said: “[The new factory] has given us an opportunity to grow further. We’ve accelerated quite a lot in the last year to 18 months, but we rapidly ran out of space and it seemed really clear to us that we needed to find a bigger premises.”
In addition, the Guinness deal – exclusively revealed in the July issue of Food Manufacture – was likely to help turnover reach £3M this year.
‘We felt the market was right’
“We approached Diageo to produce a Guinness-flavoured cheese, because we felt the market was right for it,” explained Glynn, who was also instrumental in creating Guinness-branded crisps when md at Burts Chips.
“We have signed an exclusive three-year contract to produce the cheese in the UK and Europe, with further launches worldwide in the future.”
Find out more about how Glynn has developed Windyridge since buying the business in 2012 – part of our ‘Me and My Factory’ series of profiles – in the July issue of Food Manufacture.
Clipper Teas
Meanwhile, a new factory is also set to boost the fortunes of organic tea maker Clipper Teas, according to the man in charge of its development.
In this exclusive video interview, Mark Bagwell – operations director at parent company Wessanen UK – said the new factory would make the business more efficient while providing the capacity to fulfil estimated demand for a decade.
And in this second video interview, Bagwell claimed that while most of the black tea category was in decline, demand for more premium envelope, string and tag formats was a key area of growth.
Do you and your factory have a story to tell?
If you think you would make a suitable Me and My Factory candidate, Food Manufacture’s associate editor Noli Dinkovski would love to hear from you.