THE West Marton based company, British Creameries Ltd, owned by Van den Bergh Foods since 1987, has been sold to a private company.

Yieldingtree Ltd a chilled food wholesale and yoghurt manufacturer in Stourbridge and Central Provisions Ltd, a cheese packing and processing company based in Hereford, have bought the company for an undisclosed sum.

All 90 of the employees at the West Marton factory will continue to be employed by the purchasers who have renamed the company The British Creameries Group Ltd.

West Marton Creamery, its original name, was opened in September 1900 as a butter processing plant due to the poor quality butter which was manufactured locally on farms.

In 1947 the creamery was incorporated with West Marton Dairies Ltd. Associated Dairies (ASDA) acquired the group in 1960 and was bought out by Van den Bergh Foods in 1987.

Employees were told in February 1998 that a full-scale business review was to be held.

It was decided to seek a buyer who was prepared to keep the site open and employ all the current staff on as equivalent terms as possible. These priorities, according to the company, have been achieved.

And West Marton factory manager Neil Grocock said there were several plans in the pipeline to celebrate the factory's centenary.

"There is to be an inclusion of the company's history in a millennium book being put together by local landowner and owner of the factory site, Amos Nelson.

"The new owners have suggested bringing out some special centenary cheeses and there are also plans to hold celebrations with staff and their families," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.