Nikki & Kevin Sweet of Toloja are celebrating it's 3^rd year this year with the purchase of some much needed new equipment worth £30,000 which could 10-fold their operation - but this isn't the first time they have had to expand, in fact year-on-year they have had to increase production to meet demand and now with the help of a Welsh Assembly grant they hope the future is now set to introduce more ranges and cover more of Wales.

Their move to Wales was one in search of the ‘Good Life' it took them 5 months travelling over 15,000 miles around the Welsh countryside in a caravan with three adults, 2 children and a baby before they found their ideal home, a run down smallholding near Aberaeron - They spent a year getting the place habitable and secure for their growing stock of Kune Kune pigs and Soay sheep, but their rare breed animals was not going to keep them, so a business idea had to be found, this came from a Chance remark from Kevin about one of their fields looking nice as an orchard, and of course with apples.....comes cider!!!

2003 was spent fact-finding and going on a cider making course as well as trying to seek funding to set up - however no grants were forthcoming so Nikki took on a part-time job as a scheme organiser for a national charity.  Then in 2004 disaster struck, at just 35 Kevin fell seriously ill with a heart problem which lead to him suffering several heart attacks and having major surgery - his misfortune was down to a hereditary condition and his return to good health remains to be a long one.

Nikki says ‘trying to combine hospital visits, care for our 3 young children, keep my job and  maintain our smallholding was pretty tough, and I probably should have put the business idea on hold, but I didn't know what the future held or whether Kevin would be coming out of hospital - I needed to carry on as planned'.  Nikki managed to track down a hand-operated cider press, bottle filler and other items from Ebay, then pulled together enough money to buy a mill, she then found hand-picked and unsprayed fruit via the Welsh Perry & Cider Society, ‘the fruit is very important she say, we wanted to make a totally natural product without using any preservatives or added yeast, hence our slogan ‘Natural to the Core'.

In 2005 Toloja was launched - derived from the names of the couple's children, Tom, Lottie and James -  complete with medieval tapster logo. From her first, 10-tonne batch of apples, Nikki produced over 3000 and 300 of juice. She sold out within four months. Each season more cider and juice was produced, in 2006 a new press was bought along with a 100 bottle pasteuriser, this year also saw the couple achieving Silver in the Welsh Perry & Cider Championships for their medium sweet cider Drunk Dewi as well as commendations in the True Taste of Wales. 

More and more people were getting to hear of Toloja and their ciders and juice, they could be found in shops all around Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire as well as food fairs and Aberystwyth farmers market.  All bar one of the ciders are named after characters/places from Arthurian legend and 2006 saw a Bronze and Gold win at the Welsh Perry & Cider Championships as well as a commendation in the True Taste of Wales for their mulled cider, this lead to the launch of a bottled range with comical labels as well as Excalibur Brandi Seidr (Cider Brandy) and their website www.welshcider.com   

Again stocks ran low so they made the decision to look for a grant, the Welsh Assembly Government came up with an Agri-grant and they secured 40% of the cost of new equipment including a belt press, mill, pomace conveyor and other ancillary items which would streamline their operation and enable them to not only increase production but also introduce new ranges.

2008 sees more outlets stocking Toloja's products, as far north as Conwy and south to Swansea, plus the launch of another bottled variety - Merlin's Potion available in 500ml new style bottles to compliment Guinevere, Drunk Dewi and Lancelot, as well as two ranges of sparkling ciders in champagne style bottles called ‘Lady of the Lake' and ‘Pinc!' 

This season they are hoping to secure 30 tonnes of organic Welsh grown apples the result being even more ranges available for 2009.  Nikki and Kevin say ‘we love what we do and enjoy meeting people at events, we don't just sell a product, but a lifestyle' this has resulted in them running cider making courses to others interested in making craft cider.

October 2008 also saw a huge triumph for the deserving couple, with being named Gold Winners for the Barclays Trading Places Awards. After all the hard work, they were named regional finalists in August only to have some dreams realised and being presented with a cheque for £10,000, courtesy of Barclays, at a black tie dinner at the Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, London. Kevin and Nikki also walked away with £3,400 worth of Microsoft desktop and server software.

John Davis, Barclays Marketing Director for Local Business and a judge on the panel, said: "The caliber of this year's entries was exceptional but the judges unanimously agreed that Toloja Orchards shone out as an outstanding business that has thrived despite what seemed like impossible odds. “All of us congratulate Kevin and Nikki on being named the Gold Winners in this year’s Barclays Trading Places Awards and we hope their story will inspire other budding entrepreneurs, who face similar difficulties in there private lives, to come forward and turn their own business dreams into reality."

For information of stockist and events in your area, log onto www.welshcider.com or call 01570 471295.