Making beautiful butter

Butter Crafting Team

The secret to making butter as good as Westland does is time. It’s time that has been spent perfecting the traditional Fritz churn method. In Westland’s butter team staff have spent an average of 20,000 hours (or 10 years) producing butter, with one person making butter for Westland for more than 50 years.

Process Manager Cream Products Dean Robinson has himself just celebrated 30 years’ service. He explained, “Our butter team has more accumulated knowledge than any other team at Westland and, potentially, more knowledge than any other butter producers in the country.

“After making butter for so many years, everyone working in the factory has the eye for it and just knows when it is right. We have four butter churners all with their own characteristics. What works in one, doesn’t work in another – so our staff have to be able to use the instinct that comes from extensive past experience.” The butter team has added its own craft to butter production. The team requires people who have the skills to make a beautiful product without relying on automation and technology.

New employees are trained by those who have the most experience to make sure that everyone gets the benefit of the team’s knowledge. Westland’s butter only has two ingredients: cream and salt. It does not include anhydrous milk fats, which can be stored for months, just fresh cream straight off the farm. No other additives are used. The pure simplicity of mixing fresh cream and salt gives Westland butter its beautiful rich, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth flavour.