Clandeboye Yoghurt opens £2m creamery in bid to quadruple production
Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt has opened a £2 million creamery that will allow the company to quadruple production in order to grow sales with the potential to move into new markets.
The new site on the Clandeboye Estate in Bangor sees the company moving from its original incubator site at Ards Business Hub after 15 years of sustained growth.
Its yoghurts have won numerous accolades including three stars in the Great Taste Awards, Gold in The Blas na hEireann, and UK and Irish Quality Food Awards.
General manager Bryan Boggs said the company has grown between 30- 40% year on year since its launch in 2007 and needs a purpose-built factory in order to continue to develop and seek out new markets.
“When we first came to Ards Business Hub we had two staff and processed 300 litres of milk each week. Now we employ 20 people and process 6000 litres per day,” he said.
“It had always been our dream to build a sustainable business on the Clandeboye Estate, powered by green energy, using milk from our own herd.”
The business was the idea of the late Lady Dufferin who hired Bryan, an experienced food technician, to create an artisan yoghurt using milk from her herd of pedigree Holstein and Jersey cows.
After developing the process at Loughry College, Bryan took a unit at Ards Business Hub to start production and prove that there was a market for the locally made yogurt.
“As a small start-up, we didn’t want to risk a long-term lease and the unit at Ards allowed us to trial the product. Plus, all the food production units are fully serviced so there was no additional investment in the site needed,” Bryan said.
Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt started in a single unit with its first sales from a stall at St George’s Market.
As it began to supply the Hastings Hotel Group and then all the major supermarkets in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, it took an additional three units.
“Our close-knit team has played a hugely important role in this move and this new purpose-built factory will allow us to grow further,” Bryan said.
“We are right on the parkland at Clandeboye and can see the cows that produce our milk out the window, so it’s a real farm to spoon journey.”
Nichola Lockhart, CEO of Ards Business Hub, said that she and her team were proud of the role they played in helping this thriving business through its journey from start up to becoming a major supplier of high-quality local yoghurt.
“Ards Business Hub is a social enterprise and our aim is to help businesses grow and flourish and we are delighted with the success of this company.”
