About David...

 

David started making apple juice for the children back in the early 90's as a hobby due to the family home having almost 4 acres of fruit trees. One day it occurred to him that making apple juice could potentially be a lucrative business opportunity. Watergull Orchards was founded in 1995, originally started with a hand press and the help of four willing children, the juice was all hand bottled and whilst the children slept. Slaving away over night pasteurising of the juice would take place, involving 2 tanks which held a total of 36 bottles. Once up to a temperature of at least 78°C they had to be kept at this for 20 minutes, then capped and left for a further period of time to sterilise the caps. All in all between the children going to bed at night and getting up for school the following morning there would have been around 25 to 30 cases made, this doesn't include labelling the bottles or date stamping etc which was all done by hand with a glue roller back then.

 

Watergull Orchards has gone from strength to strength though. We've gone from a hand run press to a 30 tonne press which can produce more than 25 times as much juice in the same time frame as we did back in '95. To put this in perspective, we used to make 250 litres a day, we can now easily make over 6000 litres in a day. The pasteurising and bottling machine also allows us to go from a 'raw' product to the finished bottled, labelled and date stamped product much faster. When it used to take us a couple of days to have 30 cases ready for dispatch this can now be done in 30 minutes. Without David's passion, commitment and drive Watergull Orchards wouldn't be where it is today. It also wouldn't be where it is today without the help of Dan, James, Jess and Lucie along with many other family members that have helped along the way. David also has a very supportive wife who attends shows & events with him both in & out of the country. They have a large extended family who keep them busy alongside the running of the business. David's favourite Watergull product is Discovery.

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About James...

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James has been working in the family business full time since he finished sixth form. In reality he's been working in the business since it began!! He generally greets people with a nod of the head rather than words - the quietest member of the Watergull Team. James' favourite Watergull product is Apple & Raspberry

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About Jess...

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Having recently re-joined the business in January '17 in a full time role Jess hopes to make footprints into the world of social media for Watergull Orchards along with promoting sales of the range of Cider. Having worked on and off for the business for over 10 years it shouldn't be too hard to pick everything up nice and sharpish again!! Originally leaving to make her own footsteps in life she qualified as a Nurse but always wanted to come back to the business at some point and 2017 felt like the time to do it. Jess' favourite Watergull product is Cider with Elderflower

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About Alan...

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After 20 years of service in the Royal Air Force Alan then worked as a Business Consultant including over 20 years of sales experience.

Alan joined Watergull Orchards in 2013 as a Salesman, working part time to aid David in apple juice & cider sales, promotion, trade show attendance and research. He has been an integral part of the business over past years and continues to put in the hours.  Alan always has something interesting to say and is like a fountain of knowledge a lot of the time. Alan's favourite Watergull product is Howgate Wonder.