The Tesco store will be built on the site of the existing creamery, enabling First Milk, the owners of Campbeltown Creamery, to relocate to purpose-built premises on the outskirts of the town.
First Milk was granted planning permission for the new creamery at Snipefield in the summer, but a move couldn’t take place without Tesco also being granted approval to build a new store on the site of the existing creamery.
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In July 2009, First Milk revealed plans to secure the future of 40 dairy farms and 100 jobs in Kintyre with a proposal to build a modern creamery on a new site. The proposed creamery would be funded from three sources:
Paul Flanagan, First Milk’s group communications director, said: “This news is a huge step towards our objective of building a new state-of-the-art creamery in Campbeltown. Tesco and ourselves can now focus on progressing the remaining details relating to the sale of the existing creamery site. We remain on-track to exchange contracts with Tesco and start work on the new creamery site early in the New Year.”
Doug Wilson, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said: “It’s greatly encouraging that council members have backed Tesco’s plans. We wholeheartedly share the community’s enthusiasm to see new employment opportunities created for the area and this is a step forward in the preservation of our long standing supplier, First Milk, in Campbeltown.”
The current creamery was built in the 1820s as a whisky distillery before being converted to a cheese manufacturing facility. With no other viable processing outlet for these farms, future prospects for the dairy industry in the area were bleak without a replacement creamery.
Source: First Milk
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