Orkney Cheese Company
Deerness Road, Kirkwall KW15 1SW
Chairman: George Eunson
Tel: 01856 872824 Fax: 01856 872402
To the outsider any resume of the recent history of milk processing and distribution in Orkney looks complicated, but there is a simple conclusion.... Orkney’s 26 dairy farmers, through the formation of the Orkney Cheese Company Limited, are in control of their own destiny.
The relatively high cost of milk production, the lack of a significant local market for liquid consumption and the distance from mainland markets, has dictated that the main dairy product to emanate from Orkney is cheese.
Orkney Cheddar is renowned - speciality cheeses of varying maturity which enjoy shelf space in all of the UK’s major supermarket groups.
However, when Express Dairies plc acquired Claymore Dairies in 2000 there were real doubts about the future for the local dairy industry as Express did not wish to purchase Claymore’s cheese interests which included a manufacturing plant in Orkney.
George Eunson is Chairman of Orkney Cheese Company. A dairy farmer himself, he milks 130 cows on the family farm overlooking Kirkwall: “There was only one option, the producers had to take control to secure their own future.”
The first step was to form a new producer co-operative Orkney Milk which now owns 70% of the cheese business. Twenty per cent is owned by A. McClelland & Son Ltd., a natural partner as they had previously brokered and marketed Orkney Cheese, with the remaining 10% of shares taken up by Orkney Islands Council.
With the old Claymore Creamery in Kirkwall nearing the end of its useful working life, Orkney Cheese Company has now embarked on the construction of a new factory at Hatston Industrial Estate which will allow for more efficient production and packaging, incorporate capacity for the storage of 1500 tonnes of cheese and address the effluent problems associated with whey by-product. Storage alone will save the company £100,000 per annum by replacing present rented storage in Glasgow.
The factory - due for completion late in 2001 - is being constructed by Orkney Islands Council and will be rented back to Orkney Cheese Company who are now raising the £1.6 million required to equip the custom-built premises.
George Eunson: “It is an investment that will sustain the dairy industry within Orkney and provide direct employment for more than thirty people in the creamery. It will also allow us to extend our product range.”
With an annual production of only 1000 tonnes, Orkney Cheese is very much a speciality product which needs to be at the premium end of the market. The majority is matured for 15-18 months and sold in 20 kilo blocks as extra mature cheddar.
There is a market for medium blocks and the company also makes a “pound round” and smoked products.
New projects include an extra mature package for the tourist industry and specially sized blocks for the delicatessen sector.
George Eunson: “From a position of uncertainty, we now have the confidence to expand and develop. Much of that is due to the co-operative principle which supported a continuation of the value added route for our milk. In fact, without producer commitment there would be no dairy industry in Orkney.”