Paxton & Whit eld grows retail arm with take-over of Canterbury shop

By Patrick McGuigan

Britain’s oldest cheesemonger Paxton & Whit eld has asserted its commitment to the high street with the opening of a new shop in Canterbury, Kent.

The retailer, which has traded since 1742 and has two shops in London and one in Bath, opened a fourth outlet in the cathedral city last month, a er it took over and rebranded the Cheese Shop Canterbury. The shop has a back room, which can be used for events, and will also act as a wholesale hub for local restaurants. Previous owner Julie Ann has stayed on as manager.

Despite high street retailers facing major challenges, including rising costs, the cost-of-living crisis and the boom in online sales, Paxton’s MD James Rutter told FFD that shops remained an important part of his strategy.

“Our business fundamentally changed during Covid,” he said. “Our online business is now bigger than all our shops together. But there are still opportunities in bricks and mortar. Our shops are a portal into our whole business. There isn’t a human sense that isn’t stimulated by walking into a cheesemonger’s. It’s an immersive experience that you are not going to get with a Google advert. Shops are the best way to bring people into cheese.”

Rutter said he was optimistic the new shop would perform well due to its location and local demographics. Canterbury is an a uent city with a high number of independent shops and strong footfall from surrounding areas and tourists.

Paxtons has also developed several new products in its maturing rooms in Gloucestershire. The retailer has worked with King Stone Dairy to create an exclusive Tomme-style cheese called Corinium, which makes use of a summer glut of milk at the farm. This joins a similar sheep’s milk cheese called Cullum, created with Cumbrian cheesemaker Martin Gott.

The company has also expanded its XO ‘extra old’ range of cheeses with the addition of XO Sparkenhoe Red Leicester (aged for 12 months instead of six), while a barrel-aged cheese, similar to Feta, is also planned with White Lake in Somerset.

“We’re keen to use our maturing rooms to help cheesemakers and farming communities,” said Rutter. “We want to work with them to express their milk and farming practices in cheeses with a sense of place.”