Skip to main contentAccess keys help

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
BBC News
Launch consoleBBC News in video and audio
News imageNews image
Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 15:10 GMT
Premiership market for dairy firm
Chelsea football team celebrate winning the Premiership
Mr Harris said some of the workforce were Chelsea supporters
A Pembrokeshire dairy farmer is making flavoured milk drinks for some of the top footballers in the Premiership.

Laurence Harris began the Daioni range of organic drinks three years ago to boost income at his Boncath farm.

Now the business employs 20 people and clients include Premiership champions Chelsea and London rivals Tottenham.

Mr Harris said one of Chelsea's back room team discovered the drink and now the club stocks it on its in-flight service when travelling to matches.

Spurs also take deliveries of the milk which is also being sold in schools in Wales as an alternative to fizzy drinks.

"It's all very exciting and we are delighted," said Mr Harris.

It's good for the children to realise that some Premiership players are using it because it is a healthy drink.
Laurence Harris

"They take it through our distributors after one of Chelsea's nutritionists tried it at an organic shop in that area of London.

"They change their drinks every so often just to alter the monotony of their in-flight refreshments.

"We don't know which players drink what but we are chuffed. There are some Chelsea supporters working in the yard and I'm a Spurs supporter."

Mr Harris said the company had started exporting Daioni - which means goodness in Welsh - to countries across the world and supplied a number of UK supermarket chains.

Serious business

Demand is increasing and Mr Harris said he hoped the businesses, which has an annual turnover of over �1m, would continue to grow.

"Before we started there were just three or four employed at the farm but now we are up to 20," he added.

"It's good fun having been a farmer for 35 years as it has turned into a serious business.

"We supply a lot of schools who sell it instead of fizzy drinks and it's good for the children to realise that some Premiership players are using it because it is a healthy drink."


RELATED INTERNET LINKS
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites



FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

AmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia Pacific