Name and role: Razan Alsous, Managing Director
Company: Yorkshire Dama Cheese Ltd.
Sector: Food industry
Describe what your business does:
We manufacture Halloumi Cheese. As I couldn’t find a great tasting quality squeaky cheese anywhere in the supermarkets or local independent farm shops I then had a brainwave: why not create a business and make myself Syrian cheese from fresh high-quality British milk!
How many staff do you employ?
11.
What does your role entail?
As we continue to prosper, we are working on different areas of the business. We have re-branded our cheese products as “Yorkshire Squeaky Cheese” to highlight our new home’s amazing fresh milk and we have recently added two new varieties; rosemary and oak-smoked in 2017.
What attracted you to start/operate your business in Huddersfield?
We established our factory in Huddersfield because of the location and the water and those reasons are behind the milk quality as well.
Name some of your biggest business achievements:
We started with a loan of £2500 in a chicken shop, after four months we won the first award which was the World cheese award bronze prize. After three years of production, we managed to move to a proper industrial unit and sell our cheese in Yorkshire and start to expand more to the north and south. Now we are in the fifth year, and we’ve got 11 employees, we sell to Morrisons and distribute our cheese all over the UK.
What are your hopes for Huddersfield 10 years from now (2030)?
I believe Huddersfield is a strategic location as it connects the important big cities in the North ( Leeds, Manchester, Bradford, Wakefield, so I hope to see this continue.
On a personal level, what do you love most about the town?
I love the nature side of Huddersfield and the fact that it can be quite peaceful – I can enjoy living there.