A queue of eager customers formed at a new milk vending venture a good hour ahead of its advertised opening time.

Demand for the farm fresh milk from the Beynon-Thomas family’s first milk vending site exceeded their every expectation – to the point where a group of cows had to be hurriedly milked early to prevent an interruption in supply to the machines.

“We could see that we were going to run out if we waited until our usual milking time because the milk needed to be pasteurised,’’ recalls third generation farmer Ifan Beynon-Thomas, who produces milk from a herd of 250 pedigree Holsteins at on the outskirts of Pontardulais, at Goitre Farm, Hendy.

It’s a situation that every new business might dream of – daily sales of 50-80 litres were budgeted for, but on day one actual sales were 380 litres and that volume kept growing.

Buoyed by that, Llaeth Beynon now operates five vending sites in south-west Wales, at Hendy, Ammanford and Swansea with three of those supply ice cream produced from the Goitre herd’s milk; there is also a coffee machine outlet too, all within two years.

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“It has been a steep climb with a lot of arguments on the way,’’ laughs Ifan’s father, Gareth.

Like the day when 8,000 reusable glass bottles arrived in the farmyard, before the first vending site opened.

“My response to Ifan was, Where the hell are you going to sell all of those?,’’ Gareth admits.

But Ifan’s faith in the venture was justified as sales have been very strong.

“Ifan came out on top,’’ Gareth concedes.

The ethos behind the brand is to sell local milk to local people in glass bottles that can be reused.

The family’s work ethic is hard to match, even in an industry that functions on little sleep.

“I average around four hours of sleep a night, five if I’m lucky,’’ says Gareth. His wife, Monica, needs little more and their children are no shirkers either.

Gareth and Monica’s daughters, Sara and Alaw, are schoolteachers, both heads of department; Rhys and their daughter-in-law, Sarah-Jane, are directors of Prostock Vets, and Ifan is in charge of the milk vending business, having also played rugby at a semi-professional level.

And coming up through the ranks are the first grandchildren, Monty and Ellis.

The farming business was established by Gareth’s father, Cliff. Goitre was a privately-owned farm that he rented. He seized the opportunity to buy the 150-acre farm when it was offered for sale, and farmed it with 50 cows, heifer followers and 50 sheep.

Today, together with rented land, the family farms 700 acres that support 250 milking cows, 300 followers and 300 breeding ewes, with lamb produced from a flock of Berrichon ewes.

The diversification into direct milk sales was prompted by the pandemic, specifically by the failure of their milk buyer to collect their milk during the initial days of the first lockdown.

It gave pause for thought when several days’ milk supply had to be emptied into the slurry lagoon.

“We sat around the table to look at what else we could do with the milk and worked out what sales we needed as a payback on the investment in vending machines and were confident we could do it,’’ says Gareth.

“The payback on this scale of investment would be relatively short term when you consider that farming has a once in a generation payback.’’

The family owned farmland on the outskirts of Hendy which meant the new venture could qualify to operate as farmgate sales without the need for a retail licence.

Ifan designed the housing for the machines – a converted shipping container – and that theme has been rolled out across the other sites that have since been opened.

The business has grown to the point where it employs two full time staff and one part timer.

Social media has played a significant role in that growth – at the last count Llaeth Beynon had more than 24,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook.

It is fortunate that Gareth can function on little sleep because as well as an all-consuming farming operation he also serves as a Carmarthenshire county councillor and is a governor at two schools.

“Sometimes the council work complements farming though because I can get off the farm to do something different and return with a fresh mind and fresh ideas.’’