A thriving Eden Valley company has invested £150,000 in renewable energy.
Appleby Creamery, based on the Cross Croft Industrial Estate in the town, has installed 480 solar panels on its roof.
These provide up to 180kW of generation capacity, with the surplus being sold to the National Grid.
“This is all part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability at the creamery,” said the company’s managing director Maurice Walton.
“Electricity usage is very high here and we want to be as green as possible in our operation.”
The panels have been an investment of more than £150,000, which has included grant funding from The Lake District Foundation and Westmorland and Furness Council, through the Greening Eden initiative.
“During the day the panels are supplying all our power and, once we install a suitable battery storage system in early 2024, which will be partly funded by Cumbria LEP, we hope to become almost self-sufficient in electricity and reduce consumption of Liquified Petroleum Gas,” said Mr Walton.
“This is obviously weather dependent and it will be interesting to see how the system performs in winter.”
A new 22kW public electric vehicle charger has also been installed at the creamery.
Appleby Creamery produces white mould-ripened brie, but it also produces a range of hard territorial cheeses, such as Gloucester and Red Leicester, and some spreadable soft cheeses. An increasing number of products are produced specifically for the kosher market.
The business is expanding and developing new products, including a halloumi-style grilling cheese log, which is ready to slice to create burgers.
Ian Barlow, who has recently joined Appleby Creamery as sales manager, said it was already proving popular with local chefs.
The expansion has also seen Tom Bucknall rejoining the production side of the business after a few years away.
Meanwhile, Mr Walton said he was honoured to have just received The Brian Peacock Award for lifetime contribution to the dairy industry from the Society of Dairy Technology at a ceremony during the society’s 75th anniversary gala dinner in Stafford.
Mr Walton has lived in Appleby since the age of four and attended Appleby Primary School and Appleby Grammar schools. After studying environmental health at Leeds Polytechnic, he joined Express Dairies at Appleby and worked his way up to whey products manager.
He later joined Diversey, an international chemical detergent company. Mr Walton was one of the company’s dairy specialists and was appointed its sales manager for the North of England, Scotland and the Midlands.
Later he set up his own business as a dairy technology consultant, which involved developing training, education and hygiene initiatives in the dairy industry.
Appleby Creamery was founded in 2007 by Mr Walton and his wife Sandra, Alan Mandle and his wife Ruth and Bob Parmley. It started in smaller premises close by and, after continued expansion, moved to its current site five years ago.
Mr Walton has been a member of the Society of Dairy Technology, which disseminates knowledge within the dairy industry, for nearly 40 years and is a past president and executive director of the organisation.
Appleby Creamery, which employs 17 staff, including several who work part-time, is owned by Mr Walton and the late Mark Callander, who died in May after an accident on his farm in Scotland. High-quality milk from the farm is used to make most of Appleby Creamery’s cheese.
Mr Walton said the company’s ethos had always been one of sustainability under the guidance of Mr Callander, whose farm uses anaerobic digesters to convert cow manure and other organic waste products into natural gas for the National Grid, dry ice and sludge, the latter of which can be injected into fields to act as a fertiliser, thus creating the perfect circular economy.
Appleby Creamery’s cheeses are sold at farm shops and retail outlets around Cumbria and further afield, such as the Fenwick department store in Newcastle.
The creamery operates as part of the Cows & Co Group, which includes Stephenson’s of Appleby, a traditional greengrocer on Boroughgate, which also trades at the weekly Sedbergh and Hawes markets.
