On Wednesday morning, the last curd passed the machines. Tomas Palmkvist is production manager and has worked at the dairy since 1978. He was already on site at three o'clock last night.
- I wanted to get a good finish and follow the last milk through the dairy. It's a sad day today, says Tomas Palmkvist to SVT Nyheter Öst.
The mood is low when curd has passed the machines for the last time. It should be spice cheese. And with these cheeses ends a 130-year epoch of cheese making at the resort. Joakim Liljeqvist has worked at the dairy for almost 20 years. For him and most others, an uncertain future is now waiting.
- I'm waiting for answers from different employers but I don't know.
And he is annoyed at Arla's decision to move production.
- I think it's crap. You can't move a cheese from here and call it Boxholm's cheese, it's not on the map, he says.
Although the last cheese has now been produced, the store is open until Friday. Anna Hoff is the store manager and has seen the queues go awry for several days.
- Last week we sold 700 kilos of just the cream cheese. Yesterday we had 700 customers in three and one-half hours.
With tears in her eyes, she tells of a tough year in which she hoped there would be a turnaround.
- We hoped, but deep down we knew it would be this way. Unfortunately, this is how it ends, says Anna Hoff.