New owners of Ripon food firm to reopen business after being 'bowled over' by messages of support

Andy Clarke, who led the consortium which last month took over Farmison & Co, the multi-award-winning online butchers, said he had been "bowled over" by the messages of support from colleagues, customers and suppliers since the change of ownership of the business.

“I want to give a massive thank you to the Farmison team who’ve acted with incredible speed to bring the business back to life and to our farmers across Yorkshire and the North, who are determined to support the business get back on its feet," said Mr Clarke, who is Farmison's new executive chairman.

“We’ve been absolutely bowled over by the messages of support from colleagues, customers and suppliers since taking over.

“It will be some weeks yet before we have our full ranges back online but we thank each and every one of the customers who’ve sent us those messages of encouragement and support over the past few weeks.

"It means the world to the whole Farmison team."

The premium meat retailer, which sells British dry aged, hand-cut and always free-range meat to home cooks and professional chefs throughout Britain and beyond, ceased trading in early April despite its high reputation and much-admired mission to is to empower people to "Eat Better Meat."

The recent purchase by ex-Asda CEO Andy Clarke and the consortium, which also includes Chilli Marketing’s Gareth Whittle, Christian Barton and Kieron Barton, has now led to a phased re-opening of the online business to customers after it received the green light to restart operations from the FSA following a certification inspection at its Ripon headquarters.

A selection of heritage breeds from farms across the north of England will now go on sale online at www.farmison.com, with more ranges gradually brought back to the website over the weeks ahead.

Its Ripon, North Yorkshire shop and click-and-collect point, ‘Cut by Farmison’, will also re-open later this week.

Farmison & Co plans to re-recruit more than 50 people in the coming months.