November 13th 2017: We are delighted to announce that Will Bennett, co-founder of Dairy Partners, has joined the Happerley Advisory Board.
The family-run Dairy Partners was started in 2007 and has grown to become Europe’s largest independent mozzarella cheese supplier, manufacturing and processing a range of cheeses created from milk exclusively supplied by over 150 dairy farms to their own dairy in West Wales. The Company is featured in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table with one of the fastest-growing international sales in the UK.
Will’s wealth of experience in working in a highly commoditised and cost competitive sector, where provenance and its premium is constantly challenged by both retailer and food service, will be invaluable to Happerley.
Will explains his support for Happerley: "The food industry desperately needs its own credible means of delivering full traceability to the end customer, for two reasons. Firstly, to reduce what I call the ‘bastardisation' of food by misleading labelling, that consistently undermines genuine product. Unfortunately, unless it is an immediate threat to public health, the statutory bodies simply lack the resources to police it. Secondly, I know from first-hand experience how telling the story of our food, from farmer up, will and does open-up export markets. In Asia, they really want this. In the UK we have a great story to tell. The whole industry can benefit from Happerley joining up the dots.”
The Happerley Advisory Board is made up of leading figures in the food and farming industry. Chaired by Peter Jinman OBE, former non-exec director of Red Tractor and currently leading DEFRA’s Farm Animal Welfare committee it also includes Tim Bennett former chair of the Food Standards Association and past President of the NFU; leading food lawyer and partner at Burges Salmon LLP Sian Edwards; CEO of Midcounties Co-operative Philip Ponsonby; Chris Crookall-Fallon MBA FRSA, community finance specialist; Adam Henson farmer and TV presenter and Clifford Freeman farmer and successful hotelier.
