A Cornish clotted cream maker is putting on extra shifts and creating new jobs in preparation for what is expected to be a record-breaking summer.

In a normal summer, Trewithen Dairy produces enough clotted cream in a single day to create 75,000 individual cream teas – a figure which is expected to rise to around 100,000 this year.

To help fuel this growth, the business, which already employs 250 full-time staff, is looking to create an additional 35 jobs.

The family-run dairy’s joint managing director, Francis Clarke, said: “We made the decision while preparing for this busy summer.

“During the lockdowns we saw a significant reduction in sales through the service sector – pubs, restaurants and the like – but we look forward to that coming back to life. Everything indicates that Cornwall and the south west is going to be very busy.

“But despite these challenges we have been fortunate to grow our total sales in the past 12-months with both new and existing customers.  So, we are preparing for that and making sure we do a great job for all our customers in what will be a very important recovery year for our region’s businesses.”

And he added that a record-breaking summer in visitor numbers would be good news for regional produce in general.

“When people enjoy a holiday here, they are introduced to the great array of quality products Cornwall has to offer and they want to carry on purchasing them when they go home. We see it in our sales. There are regions where people typically holiday in Cornwall – London and the M4 and M5 corridors – and we see that sales of Cornish products in those areas are particularly strong.

“People are wanting to buy that taste of Cornwall when they go home,” Clarke added. “So yes, we can certainly benefit from the fact that people like our products when they are here on holiday and then want to evoke those memories with Cornish products at home.”

The 35 extra staff are required with immediate effect across operations at the Trewithen Dairy headquarters in the Glynn Valley near Bodmin.