Kendal Fell Business Park will soon become home to a new tenant as Lakeland Artisan’s premises move comes to fruition.

Work on their new Kendal production site finishes in the next two weeks and will provide the award-winning business with more than four times their existing space.

The artisan producers have been operating from their double unit on Staveley Mill Yard for thirteen years, creating handcrafted preserves, liqueurs and drinks. The family business run by husband and wife team Geoff and Mary Monkman has picked up over 50 Great Taste Awards over this time and the new facilities will enable them to expand their range, with the potential to more than double existing production whilst streamlining operations.

Director Geoff Monkman explained “Our Staveley unit expanded organically but as demand for our products has increased we have outgrown the space. Our new site will not only allow us to produce more, but will save us time too. A direct example of increased productivity would be when our pallets of bottles and jars arrive; currently we need to spend a lot of time rearranging pallets and stock for each delivery, this will soon be dramatically shortened thanks to the specialist delivery bay we will have.

He added “With the extra time we can concentrate on what we do best – not only making delicious, quality products but creating and inventing new ones and bringing them to market quicker. We are excited about our future as a proud Cumbrian producer and delighted that we are able to expand whilst staying true to our ethos of celebrating local ingredients and making our products in county.”

It is hoped that long term the new unit and increased production ability will generate more jobs for the area. Lakeland Artisan expect full production to be moved to the site by early March.