Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Supporting other family farms is what we do
make just 150 bottles in one batch, with the power of the stills coming from wood harvested from the mountains.”
British Polo Gin provides employment for five people and Richard is confident that it will go from strength to strength in the year ahead.
“Receiving the ‘best drink’ award from the Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards was great because it gave us the impetus to move the business forward. It was a real pat on the back for the team and gave us extra confidence in our product and made us realise that we were going in the right direction with our gin,” he says.
“Following it up with three stars from the Great Taste Awards moved us from being a Gloucestershirebased business to one that was pushing out into the South West.” YEO Valley is the sponsor of the new Local Food Champion category of the Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards.
Yeo Valley is independent, British and proud to be making the highest quality yogurts, milk, cream and ice cream under the Yeo Valley brand. Operating from four dairies and two logistics centres in Somerset and Devon, it employs over 1,700 staff and produces more than 25 per cent of the UK’s packaged yogurt.
They have been farming in the beautiful Yeo Valley since 1961, when the Mead family first bought the farm in Somerset, and they’ve been milking cows there ever since.
Today, they have 1,400 acres of farmland and 420 award-winning British Friesian cows, making it the largest family-owned dairy business in the UK. Yeo Valley believes in organic farming because of the benefits to the environment and British wildlife, and it means healthier soil and more sustainable food for everyone.
Yeo Valley makes everything from yogurts, butter and cream to compote, ice-cream and children’s products (they call them Little Yeos) and they’re the UK’s number one organic brand.
Supporting other family farms is at the heart of everything the com- pany does, which includes buying all of the extra British milk it needs from other organic farmer cooperatives.
Yeo Valley welcomes 50,000 visitors each year to its farm and HQ. From farm tours and cooking demos to great food in its famous staff canteen and the annual ValleyFest, they love to share their beautiful valley with as many people as possible.