MEET THE TEAM

Anita Galezewska, Butter Dairy Manager

What’s your role at Wyke?

Day to day, it’s making sure our butter production is running OK – checking the schedule, doing the plan for what butter we’re making each day, checking that the cream has been delivered because that’s the most important bit. We’ve got five people on each shift, so there are also 15 people to manage. And there’s a little bit of science, too, understanding how the butter’s made and knowing you need your cream to be 40 per cent fat. Most of it comes with experience and knowing how the dairy works, but there’s some theory behind it too.

How long have you worked here?

I’ve been Butter Dairy Manager for two years in September but I started at Wyke in 2016. My first job was as a Dairy Admin, which was a real mix: paperwork, ordering chemicals, a bit of payroll and things like that. I was on a Gap Year before going to uni but I kind of stayed here! I did that for a couple of years then Wyke sent me on a Dairy Technology degree course at Reaseheath College in Cheshire which gave me a really broad knowledge of dairy including environmental, biology, health & safety, as well as a Butter module. Then I was promoted to Butter Dairy Manager in 2023.

And you won some awards on the way, didn’t you?

Yes, it’s true. I won the Student of the Year Award, nominated by my lecturers, which was very nice of them. And then Food & Drink Apprentice of the Year Award as well. Most of what I know I’ve learned on the job, though.

What’s your favourite part of the job?

In my role, I like how every day is different. I’ll get in each morning, start on something and it’ll be “where’s that day gone?” And whatever your job, Wyke is a nice company to work for. It’s a family business and you know everyone, you don’t have to change the way you talk with your boss. Of course, it probably helps that my dad’s been working here for many years too!

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced?

We moved into the new butter dairy two and a half years ago, and I was made Manager six months later. When I came here everything was new, and that was a challenge, shall we say! The training took a long time, and the equipment was mostly from Germany and France so we had to get people from there to come over to do training, and then we had a language barrier. It was tricky but we got there in the end.

What are you looking forward to?

Now we’ve settled in and got time, we can think about some improvements. It might sound really sad, but I can’t wait to beat our weekly output record and hit 120 tonne a week. The summer’s always quiet for us because the cream goes for strawberries and ice cream, but now we’re up to speed and we’ve got the US market opening up, so I want to beat that goal. I can’t wait to go to a management meeting and tell them we’ve done the max output!

Finally, how obsessed are you with cheese and butter?

Oh, I like it even more than when I started. I feel real pride when I see anything with the Wyke name in the supermarket, knowing how long it took to make and the work that goes into it. And at home, I’ll cut our packs of butter in half to check if there are any of the defects from production you can get. My partner certainly thinks that’s weird...