THE Northern Echo has launched a new weekly feature where we shine a spotlight on a local business.

The first to be featured is Darlington-based Acorn Dairy, an organic doorstep and business milk supplier with award-winning milk and cream.

Siblings Caroline Bell and Graham Tweddle established Acorn Dairy in 2000, after seeing the effects of mass production.

Ms Bell, who is also the director, said: "In the 1990s, we saw the intensification of farming required to produce cheap food and we didn’t like it. We wanted to farm organically and enjoy the benefits this offered to wildlife, animals and us as milk drinkers.

"The only way for this to be viable was to have a direct link to our customers and market. We established two doorstep milk rounds in Darlington and hoped local families would want a better quality milk brought to their doorstep.

"We were very lucky to be at the start of what turned out to be a wave of building interest in environmental, animal welfare and health matters.

"Milk in glass bottles was a new concept to a whole generation. Some were even putting our bottles in their recycling boxes, rather than leaving them out for collection and re use. An expensive failure of our early marketing messages. Now our glass milk bottles average 69 trips from the farm to customers. We are proud of this impact in reducing packaging."

Acorn's service has grown into new towns, with Barnard Castle, Richmond and Aycliffe benefitting.

The 28-employee strong firm also looks after a café and has business customers across the North, as well as Manchester and London.

"Local custom remains the backbone of the business though," Ms Bell said.

The firm first started with 360 acres if farmland, but now has over 1000. It received a Compassion in World Farming award for cow and calf welfare in 2012, holding it since, and in the same year, erected a wind turbine.

"We have some big aims to further reduce our business footprint as Acorn Dairy turns 20 years old," Ms Bell added.

"We are working towards being one of the very few dairy farms in the UK to home grow 100 per cent of our herd’s feed. We will be producing milk with the lowest carbon footprint possible for Acorn Dairy customers."

The company can be contacted on 01325 466999.

Do you have a North-East business and want to be featured? Tell us about it for Trader of the Week. Email tasmin.lockwood@newsquest.co.uk