“Bag and box your old ideas”

Cheese Talk with

Juliet Harbutt

• How one cheese shop supported locals in lockdown
• Rory Mellis, IJ Mellis: “Local businesses have a chance to flourish”
• Why we should be proud of the cheese industry’s response to Covid
• The joy of cheese grading
• “Keeping the faith”

Whether you have had a good, very good or spectacular Christmas, January is not just a time to sit back and draw breath

By all means paint the shop, re-seal or replace the floor, defug kettles, cisterns, washing machines etc. Give the staff well-earned time off, send them off on training workshops and of course get them to check out what your competitors do better, differently or badly. But you need to stress test your non-food costs.

Check out the charges and costs of your bank, electrical provider or credit card company. Stop procrastinating. Businesses save hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year by renegotiating mortgages, changing power or gas providers or moving banks. There are numerous price comparison websites, the best known are gocompare.com – a British website which provides comparison details for insurance, breakdown cover, utilities, financial products etc, and moneysupermarket.com – a British website specialising in financial services including mortgages, credit cards and loans. Another one I have been recommended was uswitch.com/gas-electricity.

Rates and monthly charges on credit card machines vary significantly as does their ability to connect or not to the internet. I joined the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) a few years back and got a significant discount on my credit card machine, however I have now returned it and instead take all payments online through PayPal and BACS and use iZettle to do face to face credit card transactions when I am at farmers markets, fairs or festivals (it connects through your phone like bluetooth).

Broadband, wifi, phones etc are an endless source of stress thanks to overcharging, poor service and incorrect charges. Despite cancelling Call Minder on one of my landlines by email, phone and online, I still had it for over two years. They stopped billing after three months but the service continued. On another line I was charged for Call Divert for six months after I had cancelled it – be sure to check what you are paying for and what you actually get. Same with banks: they come up with some very creative charges so it is worth shopping around. Packaging is another area that could give you significant savings for not too much effort.  The introduction of the .05p plastic bag charge for large businesses is not just an opportunity to be genuinely more environmentally friendly, but to reduce your costs of providing unnecessary bags to customers and encourage them to buy your branded bag for life. My local “farm shop”, Daylesford, have the best ever paper bags with a stunning large rural scene and strong handles – essential as I love their estate-grown fresh, organic and good value vegetables. Everyone reuses them – I recently saw someone utilising them in the Chipping Norton Co-op, so they’re great for advertising.

Paper for wrapping cheese has improved in variety, effectiveness and quality over the last five years and extends the life and quality of your cheese and the cheese your customers take home, yet many retailers are still strangling cheese in clingfilm. Waxed or double back paper can be branded, but I recommend smaller or new retailers to start with plain paper and spend their money on attractive labels. If you have your own branded paper you have to order a significant volume which takes up valuable space, and if it becomes contaminated (wet, dropped on the floor etc) you will have to throw it away. It can also be used to line or wrap gift boxes. The supplier I have worked with is deliwraps.co.uk which has a wide range of wax, parchment and greaseproof paper – and they know what they are talking about.

A good sticky label of your logo can make any item look more chic, elegant or artisan – it will add value to any product and save you having to brand your bags, paper, jars, gift boxes etc. They can be any size, colour or shape so you can have a variation of sizes made up. I recommend Sheldrake labels (sheldrake.co.uk) who have done the British Cheese Awards medal and award logos for the last 20 years, and many of my clients use them.

Boring but essential are your cleaning products – don’t just go on buying the same old same old. Talk to someone who can ensure you have a system of cleaning your counters, equipment and staff that is as efficacious as possible. I have used and recommended for many years Cleenol (cleenol.co.uk), a family-owned company which manufactures its own products, employs highly trained and skilled staff, and provides advice along with quality hygiene and cleaning products specifically for different industries.

Last but not least, as I have said before, have a night out with staff and/or friends and come up with a month by month list of tweets for all occasions. You don’t have to use them all, but it is better than trying to think of them when the pipes are frozen or the Easter eggs have arrived! 

The road to hell is paved etc – so book your time off now.