With growing awareness of the success of the privately owned creameries at Dunragit and Sheuchan, and knowledge of the better prices obtained for milk products sold collectively by them, a group of farmers decided to build and run their own creamery.
Consequently, at a meeting held on 22 June 1899, Galloway Creamery Cooperative Farmers Ltd. was formed under the chairmanship of Mr McMaster, Culmore Mains and the producers throughout the Rhins were canvassed for their support. The shareholding was to be raised by a levy per cow and an annual dividend paid to the shareholders in addition to the price paid for their milk.
On 7th September plans for the erection of a Creamery at Commerce Road (the site of the present day Lactalis plant) were passed by the Town Dean of Guild. The Creamery was opened on 1st November 1899, only eight weeks after the first sod was cut. At the time it was intended that an extension would be built for a Margarine department and to provide a railway siding.
At first the Creamery was used mainly for butter-making.
Double cream was filled into jars and sold both locally and elsewhere throughout the country. The skim milk from it intended for consumption was heated and cooled to improve its keeping quality and the surplus was mixed with some whole milk and made into cheese.
The affairs of the Galloway Creamery Cooperative Farmers Ltd were wound up in 1920 and the business was transferred to the newly constituted Galloway Creamery Ltd.
In 1926 a new refrigerator plant and boiler were installed which enabled its products to be transported further afield into the Midlands of England. Milk was sent by railway tankers to London.
In 1935 new buildings were erected and a roller plant from Galston was installed for drying skimmed mik and whey. At this time Sandhead and Drummore Creameries were linked with Galloway to the extent that no separate accounts were kept for them.
A further, major re-equipping programme took place in 1973. This involved the installation of totally enclosed vats in which the cheese was made followed by curd draining and cheddaring in mechanised equipment. The totally enclosed cheesemaking cycle was programmed and monitored from an independently automated panel for each vat.
The 1980s marked the beginning of a turbulent period for the Galloway Creamery. In 1987, job losses resulted from a decision to to stop production of the feta cheese plant; in part as a result of a reluctance to pay by the main feta cheese customer – war-torn Iran.
There was, however, worse to come in the following decade. No one could have predicted the negative effects of what, in 1990, was viewed as an optimistic and ambitious programme of rationalisation of the entire cheese industry of the country.