Wyke Farm’s better butter facility opens

Image: Wyke Farms
Wyke Farms, a UK-based cheddar and butter maker and producer of renewable energy, has started its new butter dairy facility up. Wyke has invested £10 million (€11.2m) into the state of art dairy, £480,000 (€539,000) of which has been supported by grant funding from the Rural Development Programme for England, jointly funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. The grant funding paid for plant and equipment in the new dairy.
The dairy expansion project is part of Wyke Farms’ five-year plan for growth, underpinned by sustainably increasing volume and strategically targeting specific regions worldwide. The company will now produce freshly churned premium butter with longer shelf-lives, allowing for shipping to premium export markets, as well as driving a reduction in waste both in store and at home.
Wyke Farms remain focused on traditional farmhouse butter recipes and plan to bring Ivy’s Reserve Salted Farmhouse Butter to market in the second quarter of 2023. Produced from whey cream and sea salt, Ivy’s will be the world’s first carbon neutral butter and will join Ivy’s Reserve Cheddar as a top tier offering for UK and export. Conventional and organic butters will also be crafted in the dairy.
Rich Clothier, managing director, third generation family member at Wyke Farms and Ivy Clothier’s grandson, says: “The world butter market is worth nearly US$20 billion and is predicted to grow by 50% by 2027. Increasingly, people across the world are looking for premium dairy products with provenance and history – butter is no exception. This investment will allow us to offer our multi-award-winning Somerset single-churned artisan butters, with longer shelf life, into regions across the world.”
The butter dairy facility is both energy and water efficient and the investment will build a sustainable long-term future and sufficient infrastructure for servicing increased sales of butter in both the UK and export markets; crucial now, as Wyke Farms continues to benefit from substantial growth in total export sales both to the EU and the rest of the world; up almost 30% at year-end 2022.
Wyke Farms’ products are made on the family farm in the centre of the cheddar making region in Somerset. In the UK Ivy’s Reserve Cheddar is available in Tesco stores nationwide and Wyke Farms cheddar and butter are available in selected Lidl, Morrisons and Southwest ASDA and Tesco stores as well as 167 export markets. All products are available online at: www.wykefarms.com/shop