Like many a worthy plan, the original idea for Glenilen Farm began at a kitchen table. Valerie and Alan Kingston were both from farming backgrounds and when they married and settled down at Alan’s family farm in Drimoleague, west Cork, the idea that there might be a viable business in fresh dairy products began to take root.
Having studied Food Science and Technology at UCC followed by two years volunteering in Burkina Faso, Valerie began experimenting with milk from the farm and producing cheesecakes and soft cheeses for eventual sale at the farmers’ market in Bantry.
“We became accidental entrepreneurs,” Valerie explains of the kitchen-table project that grew into what is today a substantial enterprise. “Alan thought I was mad spending £100 on two big pots from Roches Stores but they started our business. We were working out of the farmhouse kitchen until 2002 and I had three children during that time. It was so busy that we even set up a swing in the kitchen and would be pushing the kids as we blended.”
Any lingering scepticism Alan might have had about the viability of the enterprise disappeared when that same £100 came back with interest from farmers’ market sales over a single bank holiday weekend. “That’s when I really took notice, to see what could be made from a small bit of milk,” he says. “Farmers in Ireland produce this incredible raw milk from their grass-fed cows but most never see what it’s made into.
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“To see the little pot with yoghurt in it was amazing. It was hard to believe it was my cows producing it. I didn’t want to go to the farmers’ market initially but I really got a taste for it. Dealing directly with consumers and hearing their feedback every week gave me more excitement than the money.”
Ironically, Valerie’s original choice of career had no connection to either yoghurt or business. “I wanted to do physiotherapy but only got enough points to do Science at UCC”, she recalls. “In the end I made the best of it.”
The food journey that began tentatively a quarter of a century ago continues today through ongoing product development, resulting in an ever-broadening consumer offering. Glenilen Farm was the first to launch yoghurt in glass jars and has the first kefir product – which includes 14 live cultures – on the Irish market. Its product range includes Glenilen Farm Gut Health yoghurt, Natural live yoghurt, 0% Fat and Kids yoghurt. Additional lines include cheesecakes, country butter, clotted cream and even lemonade.
“Valerie revolutionised our thinking and made us look at things outside the box,” Alan says. “We are very focused too on the constant evolution of the brand and the desire to add goodness to the products. We are constantly looking at ways to innovate, while staying focused on using simple ingredients.”
Glenilen Farm currently processes up to 100,000 litres of milk weekly, churning out a quarter of a million pots of yoghurt every seven days. The brand is stocked by Tesco, Dunnes Stores and SuperValu in Ireland and by Waitrose and Sainsbury’s in Britain.
The couple hired their first employee in 2002, the year they built their first dairy on the farm and moved from selling at farmers’ markets to supermarkets and stores. They upgraded their facilities with a significant investment in 2008, transferring from direct delivery to a centralised distribution model. All the business’s dairy-based products are made with milk sourced from farms in the immediate area via nearby Drinagh Co-Op.
Glenilen Farm now employs 50 people, with 80 per cent of it trade in retail and 20 per cent in food service, mainly in top-end hotels and restaurants.
“We have had great support locally from people who saw potential in the product, such as John Field in SuperValu Skibbereen and Eugene Scally in Clonakilty,” says Valerie. “I well remember our first delivery there, when we got a red duplicate book and were shown how to write our first invoice.”
Glenilen Farm began selling into Northern Ireland in January 2021, with that market now accounting for 10 per cent of sales. Currently stocked in Tesco, SuperValu NI and a range of independents, Glenilen has plans to further expand over the next three years.
“We started exporting to Northern Ireland in January last year and we are now growing in that market. We are delighted to have our brand available across the island of Ireland and have developed some key relationships with partners in the market and are seeing business grow from strength to strength.”
We can’t change the world but we can change our small corner and we take great care to do our bit right here in west Cork
— Valerie Kingston
The Northern Ireland market accounted for 40 per cent of Glenilen Farm’s total export revenues, with clotted cream the top seller. Around 50 per cent of the sales into the North are made up of the glass-jar range, which is synonymous with Glenilen Farm and was the first yoghurt launched.
“The success of the glass-jar yoghurt range in the Northern Irish market could be attributed to the interest by consumers in sustainability and the ability to reuse and up-cycle the glass jar,” says Valerie.
Alan and Valerie are passionate about sustainability and have invested in solar panels, rainwater collection and heat-recovery systems, planting native trees and using only locally sourced milk. “This is a big focus for the company and something that will be at the core of what we do for many years to come,” says Alan.
Origin Green is Bord Bia’s sustainability programme for the food and drink industry, helping Irish businesses improve and communicate their sustainability initiatives with customers and stakeholders for full transparency.
“We are proud to have obtained Gold Membership within the programme, which is reserved for companies whose sustainability efforts excel in several areas, including packaging, emissions, raw-material sourcing, waste reduction, water efficiency, health and nutrition, energy efficiency, and social sustainability,” says Alan.
Sustainability is in the background of every decision made for Glenilen. “We are just going to endeavour to do the best we can and we are very conscious of the land for the time we have it and being able to pass it on to the next generation in better condition,” explains Alan. “We do energy recovery, solar panels, water harvesting and planting trees. The farm is a great place for sustainability initiatives.”
Growing up on their respective farms, Valerie and Alan were raised to be conscious of their social responsibility and impact on the environment. “Doing what’s right comes naturally,” says Valerie. “We can’t change the world but we can change our small corner and we take great care to do our bit right here in west Cork.”