Princess Anne Comes to Melksham

THE Princess Royal visited Melksham this week to present a Queen’s Award for Industry to a local company. She visited Coombe Castle International on Western Way to officially open the firm’s new £1.5million headquarters and to present the specialist producer and exporter of quality dairy produce with their third Queen’s Award.

Greeted by chairman Glyn Woolley and managing director Darren Larvin on arrival, Princess Anne toured the premises to see Coombe Castle’s cream production facilities before unveiling a commemorative plaque.

The unveiling ceremony was followed by the presentation of the Queen’s Award for International Trade, in recognition of Coombe Castle’s success in exporting specialist dairy produce from the UK and Ireland to over 40 countries including Canada, US, Russia Japan and South Korea. The company previously won the Queen’s Award in 2001 and 2007.

Dignitaries from across Wiltshire attended the event including the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire Sarah Rose Troughton, The High Sheriff, chair of Wiltshire Council Christine Crisp and Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham.

Among the guests was Helen Pile from Tree of Life, one of the largest distributors of speciality and natural foods in Canada.  Tree of Life was Coombe Castle’s very first customer in 1980. Helen had flown in from Toronto especially for the royal visit.

Coombe Castle’s chairman Glyn Woolley said, “This is a huge honour for our firm and its people. Our mission is to take the very best of the UK’s dairy produce and export it to a global market that’s got a real appetite for British cheese, butter and milk. Having the Princess Royal here makes us very proud of what we’ve achieved and what we have planned for the future.”

Darren Larvin, Coombe Castle’s managing director said, “Winning one Queen’s Award is quite an achievement, but to win three is incredibly rare. It’s a mark of the impact a specialist Wiltshire firm has been able to make on the international stage.

“Our new purpose-built facility gives us greater storage space for the goods we’re exporting and has allowed us to expand our cream production operation. Being able to run all our activities on a single site helps us to manage the business more efficiently. We’ve been able to transfer a number of our staff from temporary working to full-time employment. Having our whole team under a single roof has also helped to build camaraderie and team spirit.”

The company relocated to its new premises in Melksham in August 2013 having outgrown its former sites in Corsham and Calne.

Financing for the premises move was provided by Barclays Corporate Banking. John Winter, CEO, Corporate Banking, Barclays said, “Winning business overseas is vitally important to UK businesses and for the economy as a whole.  This is an impressive achievement for Coombe Castle and it is always pleasing to see companies recognised in this way for their commercial successes.”

Founded in 1980 in Corsham, the company employs 30 people. It exports its own cream and also butter and cheese products from a range of farms, creameries and dairies. Well-known brands exported by the company include cheeses such as Applewood Smoked Cheddar, Stinking Bishop and Colliers Welsh Cheddar; a range of clotted and double  creams plus butter from Devon, Wales and goats’ butter.