Dairy near Harborough is off to Wembley looking for a hat-trick of awards

A micro goat dairy near Harborough are off to Wembley, in pursuit of a a hat-trick of awards.

Ganders Goat, a micro goat dairy in Cottingham on the edge of the Welland valley, has already a gold in both Northamptonshire’s SME Business awards and in the Weetabix Food and Drink Awards for their sustainability efforts.

And now the husband and wife team, Ian and Lauren Horton, are off to Wembley Stadium at the beginning of December for the prestigious 22/23 National Business Awards Ceremony where they hope to be in for a chance of bringing home more silverware.

This will be the third time in they have been at the award, having previously won silver in 2021.

Partner in the business Ian said: “I feel 2022 is our year, this is something we have been building towards for a number of years and now everything is in the right place.

"Sustainability has always been at the heart of everything we do and produce.

"With a down turn in business during the pandemic it freed us up sufficiently to focus on our environmental projects and adjust the course of the business to be sustainable long in to the future.

"Winning silver at the nationals in 2021 and the recognition we received winning 'Highly Commended Heroes of Net Zero' at COP26 just made us push even harder.”

The farm was bought by Ian and Lauren in 2013 and moved to a small dairy unit three years later when Ganders Goat was born.

They have focussed on two core products - soap and ice cream - both of which are made with the milk from the farm along with local ingredients.

Lauren said: "Yes they are an odd mix but sit hand-in-hand with each other to reduce waste. Surplus milk from ice cream production can be used for the soap especially at either end of ice cream and milking season.

"The soap is great for dry skin conditions especially and we love using natural by products like for example waste raspberry seeds from the raspberry ripple ice cream can be added to the soap and produce exfoliating bars.”

Lauren added: “The receipt of the awards recognises the good things we are doing, we hope to inspire others to follow our footsteps.”