Cheese Retailers April 2024

specialityfoodmagazine.com 41 For The Bristol Cheesemonger, the past twelvemonths have been a corker. “We’ve grown a fair bit and are currently on our biggest ever year in terms of turnover,” says Oliver Smith, who owns the business with his wife Jenny Howell. That’s not to say that, like businesses of all sizes, Oli’s teamhaven’t experienced their fair share of challenges – both in terms of local issues and larger-scale problems. “The past 12months have been a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of the economy, and to add to that we had a local footbridge that provides a lot of the access to our shop closed for most of the year.” Thankfully, 2023most certainly brought triumphs too. “Being included in the Inspirational Cheese Retailers list was a really proudmoment for us and the team.” Arguably the highest accolade came from political circles, as the teamwas invited to No. 10 Downing Street for the Christmas Fair. In terms of home-grown opportunities, the Cider & Cheese Festival “was a big hit,” says Oli, “with almost 1,400 people attending.” Plus, the team’s home cheesemaking lessons are proving to be a triumph. Perhapsmost important is the relationship that Oli and his teamare fostering with producers. “The cheese we sell gets better and better as we continue our policy of working closely with a small number of exceptional producers and getting the very best of what theymake for our customers.” “Things can be so unpredictable that all we can do is keep building on the quality of the product and service we offer,” says Oli. “It’s a bit of cliche but trying to work out what we are actually in control of and focusing on that has often been the best policy for us.” LESSONS LEARNED Revisited The Bristol Cheesemonger IT’S A BIT OF CLICHE BUT TRYING TO WORK OUTWHATWE ARE ACTUALLY IN CONTROL OF AND FOCUSING ON THAT HAS OFTEN BEEN THE BEST POLICY FOR US PICS: HALIUS 2024 is looking bright for The Bristol Cheesemonger, with the teamputting great effort into growing the connections with cheesemakers. They recently held their first trade open day - “we invited a bunch of the best cheesemakers in the area and beyond to come to Bristol and taste out cheese to our current and prospective wholesale customers,” explains Oli. “It was terrific to keep building a sense of community between producers and customers. We plan on building this ethos to grow our wholesale customer base.”