A North Yorkshire based ice cream producer are celebrating 30 years in business this spring.
Yorvale, run by husband and wife team Ian and Lesley Buxton from their farm in Acaster Malbis started in 1989 on a small rented farm making 12 flavours of ice cream. Since then, the now award winning company has grown beyond all expectation now offer over 40 flavours of ice cream, 10 flavours of sorbet and a non-dairy ice cream – with the capacity to produce 1900 litres per hour.
After purchasing the farm in 1998 expansion into purpose-built manufacturing facilities on the farm started and in 2000 Yorvale hit a milestone when the new factory opened, a standard that allowed a BRC accreditation, which in turn opened doors to larger distributor’s customers.
The team now have 1350m² of space in which to process fresh milk from the farm’s dairy herd of 45 Holstein Friesian cows which moves just 100 metres from cow to dairy each day to be made into Yorvale’s products. The company workforce has also grown with the thriving business providing employment for a team of 21.
As well as collecting a raft of awards for their business and products, Yorevale Director Lesley said two things stand out the most over the 30 years. “The first is being in a position to purchase our farm, which had previously been a dream, and building a successful business. The second is making ice cream for the queen when she came to Royal Ascot York.”
The latest additions to their product range include vegan ice cream and over the last 18 months the launch of a probiotic milk smoothie drink, Yorlife Kefir.
Lesley continued: “Throughout our time as dairy farmers, ice cream and now Kefir producers, keeping things natural and wholesome has always been central to our operation. We still only use the milk from our own herd of Friesian cows ensuring everything we make is as fresh and pure as possible. We only ever add entirely natural fruits to any of our Kefir (or ice cream) products and we don’t believe in using artificial additives.” Yorvale and Yorlife products are available throughout the region and beyond. For more information visit www.yorvale.co.uk