From starting out doing the milk rounds, Noel Barcoe has since set up his own award winning milk and dairy company. Here he recounts his journey, along with his passion for all things milk.
In 2015, following a decision to move away from mass-market milk, veteran milk distributor, Noel Barcoe along with the help of family and friends, established the Village Dairy, a Carlow-based micro-dairy, sourcing and processing milk from twelve hand-picked dairy farms. His drive and ambition has been to ‘make milk matter’ and to supply his now award-winning milk into local shops, restaurants, hotels and more recently to some of Ireland’s leading baristas.
Background
Working in the milk and dairy industry was always something that I really enjoyed. In late 80’s I left school and started working on a milk round. In 1990 I started my own milk round and began distributing milk and dairy products on behalf of Avonmore. The business grew and then in 1999, along with my business partners, we decided to set up a business called Dairyland Cuisine. We were able to sell milk and dairy products under our own brand, which we then supplied to restaurants, shops and hotels – basically to anybody that needed milk. We sourced our branded milk products from dairy coops such as Donegal Creameries, Lakelands and Dairygold. Unfortunately, when the recession hit in 2008, trade was severely affected and the impact meant having to reinvent ourselves and our business. This all coincided around the time of the pork scare, when consumers were becoming more aware about where their food was coming from and what the product had to offer, from a taste and quality perspective.
It had always been at the back of my mind to set up a micro-dairy and source milk directly from local dairy farmers. Fortunately, we still
