Cheese Talk: Fraser MacLellen, Froth & Rind

2022 is potentially going to be an interesting year for indie retailers such as ourselves. 

In our experience, we see ourselves as plugging the gaps between cheesemakers and consumers. We like to find cheeses that are not readily available everywhere else, or are from very small-scale producers, with our aim being to help get more cheeses from cheesemakers big and small in front of consumers. As an indie retailer, this flexibility is something that we can cope with easily, whereas larger retailers may have a more rigid product range, so newer or smaller cheeses may take time to get in front of consumers.

We try to be supportive of our cheesemakers as much as we can and this was especially evident during the various lockdowns when many of them were struggling with too much stock when hospitality closed. Our smaller scale allowed us to shift our model quickly, take more cheese from the cheesemakers who were struggling and get it to our local customers who didn’t or couldn’t travel far due to covid. We created specific selections to help British Cheesemakers and being an indie with a personal relationship with our customers, we were able to get the message across about the need to support cheesemakers in difficult times a bit more easily.

This is one of the aspects I really love about being a small business. We really get the chance to connect with our customers, understand their likes and dislikes, tastes, willingness to experiment, budgets, etc. This allows us to really tailor what we offer them to their individual needs and over time as this understanding grows we’re able to tinker with what we can offer them or suggest some perfectly matched products. 

This has an impact on the wider food industry too, as we are able to recommend other items to go with the cheese, such as crackers, chutneys, and other accompaniments.  We also love pairing products, especially drinks, with the cheeses we stock, and in our shop and café, Froth & Rind, we have a good range of wines and beers that we pair with our cheeses. We like to seek out slightly out of the ordinary pairings that you might not normally expect and work with local suppliers when we can. At the moment we’re working on pairing some small-batch Scottish rums with cheeses and we’ve come up with some amazing matches. This means that as cheese sales grow, we can also increase the sales of these other products and hopefully help some of the smaller producers in this area too.

We also use our customers to try new products for us. Whenever we get samples of cheese or indeed other products, we’ll share them with some regular customers and get their feedback. This is valuable feedback on the product for us and we think it helps build a bond between us and the customer.

Some things will change for us going into 2022 as things slowly head back to normality. Over the past couple of years, some of the cheesemakers have had to find new ways to get their cheese to customers, including direct sales online and farm/dairy shops. This is great, as it gives the consumer much more of a choice and there’s something nice about buying directly from the maker. It does however create another challenge for us to adapt to but that keeps us on our toes, which is no bad thing.

For ourselves, we’ve gained a lot of new customers over the past couple of years and as we’re welcoming more people back into the shop, we’re looking forward to introducing them to a whole new range of great cheeses.

I think there are also some nice challenges for indies going into 2022. Over the past couple of years we’ve had tremendous support from our customers and I think 2022 is the year where we try and repay some of that. Whether it be my new products, rewarding loyalty, or other means, I think it’s important for us to find ways of saying thank you to our customers and continuing to innovate and bring in the best products we can find.

One thing it would be great to see in 2022 is more collaboration across the whole cheese eco-system. For example, there were a number of cheeses we just couldn’t get a hold of for Christmas, despite ordering well in advance, which resulted in us having some disappointed customers. Then in January, I noticed a number of larger retailers selling off these same cheeses at a huge discount. So they obviously had too much, we and some other indies didn’t have enough, some customers missed out on their favourite cheeses at Christmas (although may have got it heavily discounted in January) so there’s a bit of a loss for everyone involved. It’d be great for some way of all working together to make sure the right cheeses get to the right customers via whatever outlet works best. It’s quite a big ask and would take a lot of organising but you never know…