Although Ian Buxton was not born into a farming family, dairy farming was in his blood and by the age of 21 he had graduated from Askham Bryan agricultural college and was managing Leeds University’s herd of 120 dairy cattle. In 1984, at the age of 24, Ian had his own farm – an 80 acre dairy unit that he rented from North Yorkshire County Council and in 1986, Lesley gave up a career in food to raise a family and to help Ian run the farm. Due to the fact that there was no suitable land to rent and the milk quotas had almost rendered investment in dairy cattle unviable, the Buxtons concluded that diversification was the only way that they could grow their business and support their young family.

Given Lesley’s background in food, it was logical to develop a food business based on a growth market and their quality source of raw materials.

In 1989, Yorvale was born. Although they couldn’t realise their ambition to build a farm shop from which to sell their premium dairy ice cream, Ian and Lesley were undeterred and invested in mobile units to build their brand and their business.

Yorvale’s reputation for divine ice cream spread like wildfire and before long York’s hotels and restaurants wanted to include Yorvale on their menus. Today, Yorvale supplies farm shops, independent retailers and enjoys regional listings with Booths, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco. It reaches its loyal base of hotel and catering customers through a network of food service distributors and eagerly anticipates the next successful decade.