Royal Welsh Show 2016

The Royal Welsh Show is an important date in our calendar, providing an opportunity to meet with members, customers and industry contacts. This year, we also welcomed the entrepreneurs of tomorrow when we showcased slate-inspired accompaniments designed by local children from Pentreuchaf School.

Earlier this year we were approached by the Pwllheli-based school to help on a project intended to educate the primary-school children about business and marketing. The project, which the pupils decided to call ‘Menter Llechan Lan’, has been the focus of the school’s summer term. The school children spent months designing and liaising with Cerrig slate, to devise a range of slate products. They settled on a slate cheeseboard to be used with our own Slate-Aged Cheddar. This cheese is transported from our Chwilog base to the Llechwedd Slates Caverns in Blaenau Ffestiniog and left to mature 500 feet underground, in what is believed to be in the steepest mining maturation caverns. The Slate-Aged Cheddar is available under our Dragon brand from stores across Wales and nationally in Lidl.

The pupils returned to our offices in June to present their designs in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style forum, with the successful prototypes being made into finished goods that were displayed and available to buy at our stand in the Food Hall at The Royal Welsh Show.

Linda Lewis-Williams, Product Development said “We were delighted to work with Pentreuchaf School and help the entrepreneurs of the future. They really took on board our requirements and embraced the project. We were really impressed with their creativity and approach. We were so pleased to have some of the finished cheeseboards at the Royal Welsh Show and they really helped to showcase our Slate Cavern-Aged Cheddar.”

The project proved extremely popular at the show, sparking attention from Radio 2’s resident foodie Nigel Barden and also S4c’s Heno crew.