New business in Britain for Northern Irish Artisan Cheese

Northern Ireland artisan cheese maker Mike's Fancy Cheese has won new business in England for its handmade Young Buck blue cheese. The small business, which is owned by Mike Thomson and is based at Newtownards in county Down, is now supplying its award winning raw milk cheese to specialist cheese retailers Curds and Whey in Birmingham and Good Taste Food and Drink at Crystal Palace in London. Mikes Fancy Cheese also includes Neal's Yard in London among its clients. In addition, the company has signed up with Artisan Foods in Dublin,a specialist food distribution business based covering the Republic of Ireland. Thomson, commenting on the new business, says: "I've been focusing on developing sales in Britain over the past year. It's immensely encouraging to have won business to supply to such prestigious and specialist retailers as Curds and Whey and Good Taste Food and Drink. "They will help us to increase awareness of my Young Buck blue cheese in Britain among shoppers and foodservice operators there," he adds. Thomson trained at the School of Artisan Food in England and worked in a dairy before returning to Northern Ireland to set up on his ownbusiness. He has also gained experience from Neal's Yard Dairy, one of Britain's biggest artisan cheese businesses, and from working at theArcadia in Belfast, Northern Ireland's award winning deli. "During my time at the School of Artisan Food I had the opportunity to make cheese with some of the best cheese makers in the country, such as Joe Schneider at Stichelton and Jamie Montgomery at Montgomery's." Following his graduation in dairying he gained employment with Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, managing the making of three different award winning raw milk cheeses while evolving the recipes and creating his own blue cheese, a Stichelton cheese from unpasteurisedmilk sourced from a local farm. He used crowdfunding to raise an initial ?80,000 to start the artisan cheese business.