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Derbyshire Farmers Diversify Into Luxury Ice Cream Making
15/10/2008
Dairy farmers, the Brown family are turning their hands to a cool alternative to milk with the launch of their luxury Bluebell’s Farmhouse Dairy Ice Cream.
As owners of Brunswood Farm in Spondon, Derbyshire, Rosemary and Geoffrey Brown decided to diversify and create the luxury ice cream company after struggling to make a living through selling milk from their herd of cows. Work has now started on converting redundant farm buildings into an ice cream parlour, tea rooms and farm shop. The couple will run the new business with daughters Henrietta and Lydia and son Oliver.
Rosemary Brown said: “As a family, we milk 100 Friesian cows on our dairy farm on the outskirts of Derby which produce 850,000 litres of milk a year, but a falling return on this commodity led us to look at a way of adding more value. We considered several options but, with the location of the farm being so near to Derby, Nottingham and Ilkeston, and due to a lack of similar enterprises in the area, we decided to start manufacturing a luxury farmhouse dairy ice cream from our cows’ milk.
As part of their diversification project, Rosemary and Geoffrey Brown sought a grant to purchase specialist equipment from East Midlands New Technology Initiative (NTI), and were successfully awarded £10,000 towards the cost.
Rosemary added: “In recent years there’s been a growth in the availability of innovative, artisan style equipment for ice cream manufacture and this has helped to open new doors for dairy farmers like ourselves. NTI’s award has made such a difference to our project and, by adding value to our milk and expanding our business and what it has to offer, we aim to maintain the existing dairy farm and ensure that its future is secure for the benefit of the whole family for many years to come.”
The NTI award is helping the Brown family to purchase a pasteuriser and a batch freezer, so they can produce their ice cream which will be sold through Bluebell Dairy Limited’s Ice Cream Parlour, Tea Rooms and Farm Shop at Brunswood Farm.
Geoffrey and Rosemary Brown first heard about the NTI award from David Richards, their Business Link advisor and received guidance from Mike Dixon of Nottingham Trent University, a lead partner in the East Midlands NTI initiative’s Food & Drink Network.
Mike Dixon says: “From the experience of setting up our own ice-cream diversification business through the university a few years ago, we were pleased to support this enterprise and look forward to offering further technical and other help as the company develops.”