Expansion boost for Yorkshire Dales cheese firm (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Expansion boost for Yorkshire Dales cheese firm

6:39pm Friday 27th August 2010 in Hawes news By Helen Perkins, Reporter

RENOWNED Yorkshire Dales cheese-makers are celebrating the completion of phase one of their £800,000-plus expansion project.

The Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes has finished initial extensions to its visitor centre with a new specialist retail store, deli and coffee shop.

Four new jobs have been created, taking employee numbers to 43, and further recruitment is expected to follow in the coming months.

Tripling the size of the extremely popular cheese shop has provided a more spacious sales area for its traditional-style, waxed and muslin-bound cheeses, and the company’s popular tasting sessions.

The deli’s offering includes more than 100 quality regional food products, sourced from local suppliers.

Wensleydale’s new ‘1897’ coffee shop now has a capacity for 72 guests.

Managing director David Hartley said: “The Wensleydale Creamery is strengthening the sustainability of the Dales as a tourist destination through this substantial expansion.

“This is only the first phase of our ambitious expansion plans, with much more to come in the late summer and autumn as further improvements are completed.”

The centre is already one of the largest tourist attractions in the Yorkshire Dales, with more than 200,000 people a year coming through its doors. It is estimated the new-look visitor centre, which is being extended in phases, will attract an extra 50,000 visitors a year.

The design of the extension is in keeping with the surrounding locality, with the external walls built in local natural stone.

Regional development agency Yorkshire Forward supported the building work with a 30 per cent grant from the Rural Development Programme for England.