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Yeo Valley Branches Out For Queens Award

When Yeo Valley wanted to mark the presentation ceremony of its second Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development there was one obvious way to do it....after planting 14,000 new trees on its farmland and round its dairies the company decided to plant the 14,001st outside its head office.

Helped by Lady Gass, the Lord Lt of Somerset, who was presenting the Award on behalf of the Queen, and Simon Moth, Yeo Valley’s Conservation Manager, Managing Director Tim Mead planted the crab apple tree, watched by over 170 people from Yeo Valley, Holt Farms, our suppliers, customers and the local community who attended the presentation of the Queen's Award for Enterprise on the 29th September the 200.

Making the award, Lady Gass commented: “This year there were 835 applications for Queen’s Awards and 144 in the Sustainable Development category. Of these, only 7 sustainable awards were made, so it’s very unusual for a company to reach the necessary standard and even more unusual for a company to win more than once.”

Accepting the Award, Keith Watts, Yeo Valley’s Chairman said: “From a handful of employees just 20 years ago, Yeo Valley has grown to become the country’s leading independent dairy company, making more than a million pots of yogurt a day and employing more than 1000 people".

“It’s a unique success story, that’s largely due to the entrepreneurial spirit and commitment of Tim Mead and his mother Mary".

“The business began as a Mendip dairy farm and one of the reasons we can maintain our commitment to the environment and continue investing in sustainable farming today is because we remain one of the country’s few remaining family dairy businesses. We value our independence and look forward to bringing even more success to the South West in the future.” The event was enjoyed by all of our guests and the organic chocolate cake was a sight to behold. Thanks to the Lakewood conference team for running the day and providing excellent food and drink and special thanks to Vivien Heal for her excellent organisation of the whole thing.

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