Yeo Valley Organic is part of a family-owned farming and dairy company based in the village of Blagdon, in the Yeo Valley, and in Cannington, near Bridgwater, Somerset, England
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Yeo Valley founders, Roger and Mary Mead began making yogurt, using milk from their dairy herd, in 1974, selling them from the gate of their farm and to local shops.[1] The present owner, Tim Mead, took over in 1990 when his father, Roger, died in a farming accident.[1]
Production of organic yogurt was started in 1993, as local farmers who were producing organic milk had difficulty finding a consistent demand for it.[1] Yeo Valley encouraged more local farmers to become organic and form a cooperative, guaranting to buy their produce to cope with growing demand.[1] Today Yeo Valley Organic is a well-known organic dairy company, with many awards for product quality and innovation, and a Queen's Award for Enterprise presented in 2001 for the revolutionary way it worked with its farming suppliers, encouraging them to turn organic and giving them long-term ‘fair trade’ contracts.[2] The firm won another Queen's Award for Enterprise, for sustainable development, in 2006 for its "Approach to management with continuing support for sustainable UK organic farming thereby minimising environmental impact".[3]
In 2010, they launched a £5 million advertising campaign, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, featuring the Yeo Valley Rap, using commercial breaks in The X Factor finals, which went viral.[4] Their follow up campaign which featured a spoof boy band, The Churned[5], launched during the first X Factor live show on 8 October 2011. They subsequently released the single "Forever" on iTunes, and are running a karaoke style competition on their Facebook page where the winner will appear on their final ad during the X Factor final.
The company is known most for its range of organic yogurt, including fat-free, children's and fruit-flavoured varieties. It also sells liquid milk, cream, butter, cheese (including Cheddar, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester) and ice cream. As well as this, the company has diversified into making sweaters from wool from their sheep.