The Proper Welsh Milk Company launched its new dairy in Whitland yesterday (Thursday), with the promise to distribute the finest milk in Europe to homes across Wales in the most environmentally friendly fashion.

The dairy is a £1.5m investment on the site of the former Whitland Creamery just off Spring Gardens, and is hoping to process and bottle up to 10m litres of milk a year from local Welsh farmers at source, getting from cow to customer within 24 hours.

Significantly, it will also create and safeguard Welsh jobs, and cut down the average distance the milk currently travels from farm to shelf by an average of 360 miles, greatly reducing the product's carbon 'hoofprint'.

Proper Welsh director Richard Arnold said: "West Wales' credentials for producing milk are second to none, given the climate, the quality of the grass and the fact that Welsh cows live outdoors longer than any other cows in the UK.

"Proper Welsh is all for increasing milk production in Wales, a country that is such a natural milk producer, we just need the facilities to process it, rather than send it on a journey out of the country and back.

"Working closely with our partners at Calon Wen, the new Proper Welsh Dairy will process milk from local farms so that Welsh customers receive the freshest possible 100 per cent Welsh product with a fantastic taste," he added.

At present, most Welsh milk travels out of Wales to be processed in 'super' dairies across the border.

Whitland is the original home of Welsh milk, and was at the centre of Europe's largest milk field after WWII before the decline of the industry, and now Proper Welsh has teamed up with Welsh farmers' co-operative Calon Wen, who will bottle their own organic milk at the dairy, to bring the whole process back to its Welsh homeland to ensure the freshest possible milk with the longest potential shelf life.

The dairy will create an initial 14 jobs, rising to more than 40 in the coming years as the business develops, in addition to helping to safeguard work for dairy farmers in the surrounding area.

Proper Welsh Milk will be available from this week in over 50 Tesco stores throughout Wales, with other independent and local retailers coming on board in the near future.

The company say that the milk will not be homogenised, giving it a richer, smoother, more old-fashioned taste with the creamy top of the milk, evoking the taste of proper milk as it used to be. There are plans also to process cream at the dairy in due course.

Proper Welsh is also using Welsh designers and printers for its labels, and customers will have the chance to win family passes to Wales Rally GB in November when they buy the milk.