Refreshed Fivemiletown cheese enjoys steady growth

Fivemiletown Creamery, the Northern Irish speciality cheese business, has experienced steady growth following a product rebrand and a £1 million investment in new production lines to cope with the extra demand.

The artisan cheese business, now owned by Dale Farm, Northern Ireland's largest dairy processor, since 2014, has been given a contemporary branding covering its extensive portfolio of award winning soft cheeses and smoked cheddar.

At present 25 people are employed by the company, producing the hugely successful Fivemiletown brands which have won awards as recent as this summer at the Nantwich International Cheese Show.

The refreshed packaging of the range of artisan products gives the cheese an outstanding on-shelf presence.

At the Nantwich event, considered the cheese 'Oscars', Fivemiletown Creamery won gold awards for their Ballybrie range as well as Ballyoak, the naturally smoked cheese and silver awards for Ballybrie and Boilie goat's cheese.

The company has been producing cheese for over 130 years from milk supplier by farmers in Tyrone's picturesque Clogher Valley. One of the most successful cheese processors in the north of Ireland, Fivemiletown originally began producing butter in 1898. It was among the first Northern Irish farmers' co-operatives.

Acquisition by Dale Farm, part of United Dairy Farmers, Northern Ireland's biggest dairy co-operative, stabilised the small producer and has paved the way for further growth particularly in Great Britain, its key market. The company has also sold speciality cheese to the US and Hong Kong.

Cheese is Dale Farm's number one production area and it is now the second biggest cheesemaker in the British Isles and the third largest dairy business in the UK behind Muller and Arla.