Primula

Primula is a cheese with a difference - we are owned by the Kavli Trust, a charitable organisation which each year donates thousands of pounds to supporting research, humanitarian and cultural projects which improve people's lives. This means every time you buy Primula Cheese you are helping to support worthy causes, right here in the UK and across... the world. This strong charity focus is the legacy of Kavli's founder, Norwegian businessman Olav Kavli who created the Primula brand back in 1924. Born in 1872 Olav grew up on a farm in the small village of Aro, near Molde on the Norwegian coast. At the age of 21, after attending business school in Bergen, he set up a business buying and selling cheese. A keen entrepreneur with big ambitions, Olav quickly developed his range and would travel the world, passing on his enthusiasm for cheese to all he met and developing trading links in a variety of countries. During his travels Olav realised there was a real opportunity to develop a cheese that was both easy to spread and had good keeping qualities, so upon his return he set about experimenting with new production techniques. In 1924 he successfully launched Primula Cheese, the world's first processed soft cheese, which he named after the Primula flowers which appeared each spring around his Norwegian home. Primula Cheese was a huge success in Norway and in 1929 Kavli introduced the famous tube packaging for which Primula is now so well know. It was at this time Primula Cheese began being sold abroad, with the UK one of Primula's most successful export markets. By 1936 the British were such big fans of Primula that a factory was set up near Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, producing the cheese on UK soil for the first time, with similar factories established in Denmark and Sweden by Olav's son, Knut Kavli. Both Olav and Knut were philanthropists - renowned for supporting good causes both locally and internationally. When Olav Kavli sadly passed away in 1958 at the age of 86 he left the business to his son, but with no children ...Read More