It only seems like yesterday that we were hand milking our herd and making the delivery rounds in Bridge of Allan by horse and cart! Back in 1939, when Grandpa Robert and Granny Isabella moved in to the farm that we still call home to this day, we had only a modest 112 acres and 12 Ayrshire and British Friesian cows. Thankfully, over the eight decades that we’ve been up and running things have moved on beyond all that.
Yep, our newfound status as an octogenarian company has got us reminiscing over all the milestones we’ve covered over the years…
The family
We might have developed more sophisticated methods of milking and distributing our product, but some things have stayed the same. We really did start as we meant to go on; as a family business. We’ve had not one but three generations of Roberts head up the dairy for example! Today you’ll find Dr Robert, Jean (who’ve been married for a tremendous 55 years now) and their children Robert and Carol (who both grew up around the farm) working hard, day in day out. Dairy farming is most definitely in our DNA!
Pioneering new approaches
You could say that pioneering new ways of doing things is another long-held tradition here at Graham’s. For instance, in 1967 we sold one of our fields in order to purchase a newfangled device called a pasteuriser. This would become a game-changer, not only for us, but for our customers too. We were now able to produce a longer-lasting and higher quality of product that was becoming more and more widely available in shops, rather than just the areas our milk floats could reach. Back then it was known as ‘Robert Graham & Son Tuberculin-tested Milk’. OK, not exactly catchy by today’s standards! But it was a very important selling point at the time.
In more recent years, this we’ve focussed our vision on product development. Recent additions to our range offer variety, quality and a sway towards healthier produce; Skyr, Protein 22 yoghurts, Protein 40 milk, Quark and most recently our selection of Goodness ice cream flavours. You’ll find full details over on our products page.
The future
What’s next? Well, who knows… but for now it’s safe for fans of Graham’s to expect more of the same top quality dairy products (and maybe a few new additions to the range?). One thing’s for sure though, you’ll hear about it here first!
