A New Whey of Doing Business

Courtyard Dairy, Austwick Andy and Kathy Swinscoe

T“ he lockdown announcement came “We introduced the concept of online cheese as a bombshell for the business – we tastings, where we send packages of cheese were looking at an 85 per cent drop in out to the participants ahead of a virtual turnover almost overnight,” said Andy. tasting lead by me online. This is now a “But thousands of pounds-worth of perishable stock focused our minds: we knew significant part of the business and forges a stronger bond with customers across the UK. we had to move quickly “We had to close the – so that’s what we did. café in March, but “Initially we got a lot of help from colleagues in the cheese industry, which really pulled together to create nationwide awareness of the predicament of many small, specialist when the lockdown restrictions began to ease we managed to open an outdoor socially distanced café featuring our ‘cheese bubbles’ – repurposed ski lift cars from Courchevel! dairy businesses and “We had a very rally support for them. busy Christmas, but “We were very grateful for all the support we received from the local community in the early days, but then we needed a change of direction. Mail order was only a small part of the overall, trade remains significantly down on the previous year and there is still some uncertainty over the extent to which the visitor economy which we are so reliant on will rebound this year. business, but because the majority “But strengthening the mail order and online of our turnover was passing tourist trade business has definitely given us a stronger and supplying the restaurant trade, we platform from which to rebuild the business needed to focus more on online sales. when confidence does return – hopefully by the late spring or summer.”