AN ORGANIC dairy company is ploughing ahead with its sustainable business plan.

Yeo Valley Organic have installed more than 1,500 solar panels at its production facilities in Newton Abbot: it is the latest step taken by the company to harness more renewable energy in line with their sustainable development business plan.

Yeo Valley’s Karl Tucker said:’

‘The installation at our Newton Abbot production site is another milestone towards our ambition to be 50 per cent self-sufficient in our electricity usage over the next 10 years

‘Sustainability is an essential part of Yeo Valley, which is why we will continue to invest in green technologies to help build a more sustainable future.’

The £600,000 installation atop the production site, based out of Brunel Industry Estate, is the third major solar-based project undertaken by the company.

In 2014, more than an acre of solar panels were installed at Yeo Valley’s Holt Farm in Blagdon and in 2021 a large-scale one million pound installation of more than 3,300 solar panels was completed at the company’s distribution centre at Isleport, Highbridge.

Yeo Valley has set aside a further £5 million for renewable energy projects across the next five years: additional solar-based energy projects; hydrogen lorries and electric vehicles are among the company’s focus moving forward.

The company also has an ambitious regenerative organic farming project in the works; this would involve measuring and mentoring supplying organic dairy farms on soil health and soil carbon sequestration.

The solar panel system has an output of more than 623 megawatt hours of electricity per year, the equivalent of powering 207 houses for a year, and provided the company with the opportunity to re-insulate the roof.

Yeo Valley Organic is the UK’s largest organic dairy company in the UK, producing over 2,000 tonnes of yogurt, butter, milk and ice cream each week – the company also produces cheese and compote.

The company was voted the nation’s ‘favourite organic brand’ by Good Housekeeping readers in their 2021 Food Awards.

Yeo Valley is a real place in the heart of Somerset owned by the Mead Family with two organic farms and its own herd of British Friesian cows.