Teesdale cheesemaker claims top honours at North East Businesswoman of the Year awards

A CHEESE firm owner has come full circle to claim top honours at a regional business awards.

Allison Raper, who runs Teesdale Cheesemakers with her husband Jonathan, collected the Best New Business award at the North East Business Woman of the Year awards.

The 52-year-old, from Rokeby, beat off the competition and was thrilled to put some demons to bed with the win.

She said: “I really wanted to win it because 15 years ago someone suggested I go in for it but the person I shared my life with at the time told me I’d be wasting my time.

“I regretted it so this meant a huge amount to me personally that I could do this.”

Judges at the event told Mrs Raper the dale brand had potential to go nationwide praising the “energy, passion and determination to succeed” of her approach.

Mrs Raper added: “I think what impressed them, from what I was told afterwards, was that I had never made cheese before and getting all these awards in such a short space of time – they thought that was a great achievement.”

The couple have run the cheese firm from their Rokeby farmhouse since late 2015 taking over from Brian and Esme Dedman, of Leaside Cheeses.

The firm has picked up an array of regional and national accolades for their dairy produce and Mrs Raper has been no stranger to decoration either – her shortlisting as regional finalist in the Forward Ladies National Business Awards being a recent highlight.

She said the latest regional accolade was a step up after picking up best newcomer at the Teesdale Business Awards last year.

Teesdale Cheesemakers will sponsor this year’s award as thanks for the boost the awards gave the firm and offered her own tip to new starters.

She added “Choose something you’re passionate about and really love because there’s long days and little time off at first.

“You need that passion to keep going.”

Milk from Hilton goes into the cheeses and the firm has branched out into goat’s milk and brie in the past year

With Christmas on the horizon, Mrs Raper revealed she was no less ambitious in her plans for the festive season.

“It’s about to go mental,” she said.

“We have twice as many Christmas fairs this year as we did last year.

“Some of the stuff we are doing is unknown – we know The Bowes Museum Christmas Market but for others we have no idea. It’s what you have to do – move out of your comfort zone.”