York ice cream business crowned Farm Entrepreneurs of the Year in National Competition

A York real dairy ice cream business has been crowned the 2009 Made in Britain Best Farm Entrepreneur by a national farming publication.

Acaster Malbis based Yorvale was one of four short-listed farm businesses at the awards presentation at the Royal County of Berkshire Showground on 19th September.

The aim of the competition, run by Farmers Guardian in conjunction with the Country Living and Waitrose Made in Britain awards, was to discover a farm business that offers a quality product and can demonstrate innovation, ambition and a real entrepreneurial spirit. Seven businesses were short-listed earlier in the year and an online public vote decided who would make it to the final four.

Yorvale’s Lesley Buxton was at the Newbury showground to receive the award and was delighted to win: "We faced stiff competition from the other finalists so were amazed to win, but we had a fantastic day and it was great to meet other farm businesses.

We know that Yorvale is a great business that makes quality ice cream, but it’s nice to know that other people think so too - it will be good to add ’award-winning’ to our strapline of ’real dairy ice cream made on the farm in the heart of Yorkshire."

The other finalists in the Farm Entrepreneur competition were Anna’s Happy Trotters from Howden, East Yorkshire, Cothi Valley Goats, Carmarthenshire and Starke Naked Foods, Suffolk. In addition to the title, Yorvale wins £5,000 from Waitrose and will be given the opportunity to have its real dairy ice cream stocked in their prestigious stores.

The Country Living and Waitrose Made in Britain Awards also crowned Isle of Gigha Fish company, Gigha Halibut, Food Champion of the Year 2009.

Yorvale is currently stocked in independent retailers, farm shops and selected Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons stores and is available to foodservice clients nationwide through its network of distributors.