The Gillot Cheese Dairy
An age-old yet modern tale
A family story
So Norman
The Gillot cheese dairy was founded in 1912 on the site where it resides to this day in the heart of the Orne bocage. The dairy, today run by the Fléchard family, has seen six families at the helm producing traditional raw milk Norman cheese.
The Gillot cheese dairy, as the only remaining independent SME manufacturing Camembert PDO and Pont l’Evêque, continues to defend day after day genuine Camembert de Normandie PDO and raw milk cheeses.
Our ambition
Unique flavours
Develop excellent, authentic products full of the distinct aromas of raw milk for a unique pleasure.
The gustatory quality of our products and the rigorous selection of raw materials, as well as safeguarding raw milk and preserving hand-ladling on tables of our Camembert de Normandie remain the pillars of our dairy.
We have also set our minds on helping to preserve our French gastronomic heritage in France and abroad.
Exclusively local
100% Norman milk
Our milk, whether PDO, conventional or organic, is collected in the Orne bocage within a radius of 40 km around the dairy, from small family-run farms committed to sustainable farming respectful of animal welfare and the environment.
The quality of our milk is by no means accidental. Our farmer’s herds, comprising mainly Normande cows, graze for at least 6 months per year… The breed and above all the cow’s diet influence milk quality and its link with the region.
Normandy, with its bocage and green pastures, its soil… promotes greater feed diversity producing a high-fat milk perfect for cheese making.
Safeguarding expertise
An essential purpose
From the time when Marie Harel, inventor of Camembert cheese, filled the moulds by hand with a ladle to the present day, the dairy strives to perpetuate this traditional hand ladling on tables as it was done in the past on farms.
The hand ladling unit is the heart of the cheese dairy.
Every day, over 120 000 ladlefuls are carefully poured into the moulds by our experienced moulders. The age-old techniques have been preserved and optimised using modern technology striving relentlessly for greater diversity, quality and guarantees.
Our certification labels
a guarantee of quality
POD
The dairy endeavours to comply with all PDO specifications whether for the manufacture of Camembert de Normandie PDO or Pont l’Evêque in order to preserve the authenticity of the Norman cheeses.
The Protected Denomination of Origin, or PDO, was created in 1992 and refers to a product produced, processed, and prepared within in specific geographical area using recognised and proven expertise.
Organic farming
Gillot is committed to local farming, respectful of the people, animals, and the planet, so the dairy naturally turned to organic farming in 2010, and today Gillot is still the only company that manufactures organic raw milk soft Norman cheeses:
- Camembert / Petit camembert
- Pont l’évêque
- Coulommiers
- Brie
- Fresh milk
- Crème fraîche de Normandie
IFS quality
The quality approach is part of Gillot cheese dairy’s DNA. We are extremely attentive with regard to food safety. Our products are tested and analysed in a laboratory at each step in the process: over 30 000 analyses are conducted each year.
Our higher level IFS certification endorses our quality commitment and our continuous improvement process.
More committed entrepreneurs
Attentive to our farmers, our customers, our consumers, and the environment, we are actively involved in societal, economic, ecological and collective progress.
Approved “Entrepreneurs plus Engagés” since 2015, our commitment in terms of Social and Environmental Responsibility is assessed and validated by an external organization.
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