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Expanding Devon Ice Cream production

Yeo Valley is to move its expanding ice cream business from its existing facility at Heathfield, near Bovey Tracey, to a new site near Newton Abbott that has been acquired from Uniq plc.

The Heathfield dairy is situated only 5 miles from the new building and it is anticipated that the 25 people currently working there will gradually move to the new facility.

Yeo Valley sells luxury organic ice cream under its Yeo Valley Organic brand and also owns the Rocombe brand, which features speciality recipes of premium ice cream and fruit sorbet.

Demand for Yeo Valley’s products has been growing steadily in recent years and says Graham Keating, the company’s communications director:

“We are anticipating that this trend will continue and the Newton Abbott facility will allow us to increase production as and when we need it.

All of the milk we use for our ice creams and yogurts comes from around 80 dairies in the South West, so from an environmental as well as convenience point of view the new site is ideal. It will enable us to maintain our policy of minimum food miles, which is good for the environment. It will allow us to transfer our current workforce and also give us the flexibility for growth in the future, which is what we need.”

Yeo Valley Organic is best known for its market-leading organic yogurts and is the trading name of Yeo Valley Farms (Production) Ltd, a privately owned business, based at Blagdon, in Somerset.

As well as the Devon ice cream making facility, Yeo Valley has yogurt-making dairies at Cannington and Blagdon in Somerset and warehousing at Axbridge and Highbridge. It employs around 1000 people in total and sells to stores throughout the country.

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