Westbury Dairy butters up the Women’s Institute
The home of Anchor Butter has been surprised and delighted at the level of response from a visit of Wiltshire Federation of Women’s Institutes to the Westbury Dairy.
Over 180 members expressed an interest in visiting the dairy, requiring Butter Production Manager, George Nicholls to add an extra three visits in 2015 with more planned for 2016!
During the 100th anniversary year of the WI, Arla’s Westbury Dairy has opened its doors to interested members of Wiltshire Federation to share with them its pride in one of the UK’s largest butter factories and the home of Anchor Butter.
George said: “We didn’t want to let anyone down so extended it to five events across September, October and November, with more to follow in 2016. The first two events have been a great success - the visitors got to tour the facility and received a short presentation and everyone left with some Anchor butter for their Victoria sponges! Westbury Dairies has an important role in the local community and the response from the ladies was very positive. They were impressed by our environmental and welfare standards as well as the fact that Arla Foods is farmer-owned and Anchor is made in their county.”
Shauna Bodman, Chairman of Workshops Committee Women's Institute said: "The Wiltshire Federation of Women's Institutes recently organised a visit to Westbury Dairies to see the various processes milk goes through once it has been received from the farm. So keen were the ladies from Wiltshire to attend, numerous visits have been organised this year, with more to come in the New Year! George warmly welcomed our members and each visit has been extremely informative giving an insight into how the dairy processes milk from the local farming community into butter and milk powder. Members commented on how interesting they found it and were impressed that the dairy, which is owned by a farmer cooperative, ensures fair pricing and support to Wiltshire farmers; this is a continuing WI campaign supporting rural communities and especially that of farming and milk production."
Arla Foods is a global dairy company and co-operative owned by 13,500 dairy farmers circa 3,000 of whom are British.
Dating back to 1881, Arla’s purpose is to secure the highest value for its farmers’ milk, while creating opportunities for their growth. With production facilities in 11 countries and sales offices in a further 30, Arla is the world’s sixth largest dairy company and largest supplier of organic dairy products. Arla has a total of more than 18,000 colleagues and its products are sold under the well-known brands Arla®, Lurpak® and Castello® in more than 100 countries.
Arla Foods UK is the largest dairy company in the country and is home to leading dairy brands Anchor, Cravendale, and Lactofree. It has a turnover of £2.3 billion. As well as being number one in fresh liquid milk, butter, spreads and cream, Arla is the UK’s largest cheese manufacturer. It has also built the world’s largest fresh milk facility located at Aylesbury and has plans for it to be the first zero carbon site of its kind. The UK business has a team of approximately 4,000 colleagues located at its dairies, distribution centres and head office.