We have combined our three-and-a-half centuries of milling expertise with the latest technology to create the world's first modern-day windmill near Boyndie, Banffshire, in the North East of Scotland.  Welcomed by Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the windmill begins full operations today.

We are proud to have returned to the traditional practise of harnessing wind, to power our milling machines at the facility by investing £3.5m in a 2.3MW wind turbine.  The new turbine provides more than enough energy to power the mill, with any excess being fed into the national grid.

We hope the new windmill will safeguard the rich tradition of growing and milling oats in the north of Scotland for generations to come. 

Milling since William Lea founded the company in 1675 and now fifteen generations later, our family is committed to its environmentally sustainable aims and the wind turbine is the first of many long-term initiatives to becoming a carbon neutral business.  The new facility will provide 25% of the company's total energy needs, saving 4,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.

Commenting on the new facility, John Lea, managing director, said: "When my great-great-grandfather introduced steam power into his milling operations, he must have thought the days of the windmill were well and truly numbered.  By harnessing the latest technology and our ancient milling expertise, we've come full circle and are once again seeing cereal bowls across the UK and beyond filled with oats from a Mornflake windmill.

"Anybody who has been to the north of Scotland can see that it has fantastic conditions for driving wind turbines, but may not know its fields grow the best quality oats in the world.  It's the perfect combination."

Mornflake is to mill all the oats in every box of its cereal product range from our mills in Boyndie and Crewe.

The new turbine was erected on the site following an extensive consultation process with the local community and five years of planning.  With no objections to the proposal, the German-built turbine was erected in late November for testing.

Today's announcement was welcomed by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, by saying:  "The new windmill is a big boost to a sustainable food industry.  By following this lead, other companies can take advantage of the Government support for renewable technologies which will not only lead to a reduced carbon footprint, but also help safeguard jobs and profitability."

The world's first modern-day windmill begins powering Mornflake's Boyndie milling operations - the most modern in Western Europe - today. 

Find out more about our windmill and how it was built here

Elderly folk across Cheshire are tucking into a warm and wholesome breakfast after we teamed up with Age UK to distribute a large donation of porridge.
 
More than 800 bags each containing 500g of our top-selling oats were handed out to pensioners attending special coffee mornings and advice sessions.
 
Our marketing manager, Richard Jones, said: "Porridge is the perfect breakfast food for people of any age but we especially wanted to support Age UK Cheshire and its work with some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Rising fuel and food costs don't make life easy for pensioners and this is one way we can do our bit to help."
 
Scores of pensioners welcomed advice on health, money and legal issues at an open day at the Oakley Centre, Crewe where the bags were distributed. Further events were staged at GP surgeries in South Cheshire and many more senior citizens went away happy with their porridge.
 
BAGS OF HELP:  Matthew Woodfield of Mornflake and Georgina Alexander of Age UK Cheshire help distribute porridge to pensioners visiting the Oakley Centre event in Crewe.

A BIG well done to Lee Riley who ran 1 mile with a 40lb bag full of Mornflake Superfast Oats on his back in a record 5m 16.9s! smashing the previous record by 19seconds, He obviously had his morning Porridge!

Speaking after immediately after Lee said,"I annihilated it. Over a one-mile distance, to knock 19 seconds off the time is ridiculous."

"I feel fresh. I feel as if I could run it again under five minutes 35 seconds. I did far better than I expected."