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INTERVIEW THE BIG
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
By Ged Henderson
STAYING STRONG
Resilience runs deep in Lancashire cheesemakers like Gill Hall. It’s made them as strong and as distinct as the products they create in the shadow of Beacon Fell.
And it’s that resilience that gives Gill confidence that they can and will overcome the challenges and threats posed by the coronavirus crisis.
“We’ve survived the war and foot and mouth, we’ve survived different difficult situations and times, and we will survive this,” she declares.
Gill makes her rallying call as she and her team are working hard to meet this latest challenge facing the family business. She says: “It has been a little bit overwhelming. We are very much reacting to things as they happen.”
However, the award-winning Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses business that she heads is also getting onto the front foot. Gill explains: “We are looking at new sales channels so we can react to the new situation.”
Just days later the business announces that it has brought together small artisan food and drink producers from across the North West to create ‘The Butlers Larder’.
It’s an innovative service delivering fresh produce to doorsteps in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.
After a very local trial in Longridge, Goosnargh and Grimsargh, the Butlers team brought together more suppliers and built an online platform in quick time.
The Butlers Larder service offers food and drink, from cheese, milk, yoghurt and eggs to fresh bread, fruit and vegetables, tea and coffee, from “the very best artisan producers in the North West”.
The aim is to give people a chance to taste the best that the region has to offer while supporting small producer businesses at a time when they really need it.
This year’s winner of the family business category in Lancashire Business View’s Red Rose Awards - the judges declared “the sense of ‘family’ runs right through this business’ - Butlers can trace its history back to 1932.
Gill’s grandparents Richard and Annie Butler used milk from their own herd of cows to make cheese by hand in the kitchen of their Inglewhite farm - cheese was even matured in the family bedrooms.
Gill’s mum Jean Butler created its flagship farmhouse Lancashire recipe. Now aged 81 she still puts in an appearance at the dairy.
She and her husband Tom took over the Inglewhite operation in 1969. With five children to bring up, they decided to increase production at a time when most cheese was sold through an organisation governed by the former Milk Marketing Board, which licensed all production. Its restrictions made life difficult for traditional cheesemakers.
Butlers Farmhouse Tasty Lancashire - matured for at least 10 months - was created and remains its flagship product.
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