An interview with Andrew Henderson, founder and Managing Director of NEMI Ltd.

Andrew attended business and marketing masterclasses run by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded SME Business Growth Programme.

Introduce yourself and your business…

My name is Andrew Henderson and I am the founder and Managing Director of NEMI Ltd – a dairy based near Audlem, in Cheshire. We’re committed to supporting our family of dairy farmers, which is spread right across Cheshire, Lancashire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, by paying them a sustainable price. We’re passionate about highlighting the quality of the produce around here and that contributes to the quality of our milk.

We launched NEMI three years ago but it’s something we’ve been working on for about ten years.

What does NEMI do?

We make fresh, powder and extended shelf life (ESL) milk that’s naturally enriched with selenium. What’s selenium, I hear you ask! Well, put simply, it’s an essential mineral that is required for the normal functioning of enzymes which control and reduce the damaging effects of Oxygen Free Radicals (H2O2) in the human body. Over the last 100 years or so, as we have become better at growing crops and raising cows, sheep and pigs, the level of natural Selenium in the soil and, therefore, the human diet has fallen.

We’re bringing milk back to what it should be. Our soil, and as a result our milk, has lost some of its nutrients so we make sure that ours is naturally enriched.

What help and support have you received from Reaseheath College?

A big part of our work is our ESL milk and this is where the support from Reaseheath has been invaluable. We’re working with a number of partners to become the first UK dairy to export fresh milk to China – but, inevitably, with that comes a number of challenges due to the time and distance it takes to cross continents. With the help of the food production unit at Reaseheath, we’ve come up with a process that not only has the extended shelf life but makes sure the milk maintains that fresh taste.

The Reaseheath team have been excellent in the sense that they have done the research and development work for us into the shelf life of the milk.

I also attended some of the business and marketing masterclasses run by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded SME Business Growth Programme and found them invaluable in making sure the business is set up for growth.

What are your future business objectives?

We want to continue to grow, to build the business and to help more and more of our fantastic farmers get the value they deserve from the work they are putting in. We’re finding more and more farmers wanting to be involved in the programme because they believe in what we’re doing and because they want sustainable prices. In fact, we’ve had fantastic support from across the industry.

The work in China is important for this as well because that extra revenue will allow us to pay the farmers competitive prices. We also want our milk to hit the mainstream because we believe that it’s a product that could benefit anyone and everyone.

For more information about NEMI Ltd, call 01270 812416 or email Ashleigh@nemi-dairy.co.uk.