Milk Link, the UK’s largest cheese manufacturer and leading dairy co-operative, has opened its brand new, £1.4 million speciality cheese packing unit at its Reece’s Creamery in Malpas, Cheshire. The unit specialises in cutting and packing traditional farmhouse cheeses from a wide range of small scale producers.
The purpose built facility combines the expertise of Creamery staff in handling crumbly territorial and farmhouse cheeses with state of the art cutting and packing technology. Many of the cheeses – ranging from mature cheddars to crumbly Cheshires – are matured in rounds and wrapped in cheesecloth whilst others arrive in traditional wooden boxes. Milk Link’s investment means that it can cut, pack and label these cheeses for major retail customers such as Waitrose whilst supporting Britain’s small scale cheese producers.
The facility operates in four sections – preparing the cheeses, which involves removing the different types of covering with which they arrive; using specialist equipment to cut the cheeses depending on their shape; packing the cheese once it has been cut; and stacking the finished product ready for distribution.
This latest investment is integral to Milk Link’s newly created Speciality Cheese Business Unit. Sitting alongside our Cheddar business, Milk Link’s Speciality Cheese business produces a variety of crumbly and hard territorial cheeses such as Stilton, Cheshire and Red Leicester. The new cutting and packing plant provides a strong platform from which Milk Link can build on its expertise in dealing with these types of traditional British cheeses, providing consumers with the products they want in the formats required by Milk Link’s customers.
Mark Frankcom, Director, Speciality Cheese, commented: "We’re delighted with this new addition to our Speciality Cheese Business Unit. Not only are we securing and creating jobs at our Reece’s Creamery, but we are also meeting our customers’ needs. Customers such as Waitrose expect very high standards when it comes to packing the food they sell – using Milk Link’s expertise and the latest technology available, they can have confidence that we will meet those standards."
