Catherine Mead OBE of Lynher Dairies was the guest speaker at Bishop Fleming's recent inaugural Cornish Food and Drink Club event in Truro.
Following the event and Catherine's inspiring presentation, Kevin Connor, Bishop Fleming and Truro-based partner, spoke to Catherine about success, the growth in specialist food making, and how exciting and challenging it is to be part of that revolution.
Champion cheese
In the last decade, the already considerable reputation of Cornish food has reached heady heights. And it’s not too much to say that the award-winning cheeses made by Lynher Dairies has helped make that happen. Iconic nettle-wrapped Cornish Yarg and the world champion cheese Cornish Kern are consistently on the nation’s top cheeseboards and are often mentioned when the spotlight turns to the best of Britain.
‘Cornish food is synonymous with fresh air, land and sea,’ Catherine explains. ‘The growing awareness of just how good our products are, has of course, been helped by our enormous tourist industry, but that is only a small part of the story. There is real excellence and knowledge, both here in the dairy and throughout the county as a whole.’’
The last few years have hardly been plain sailing with the challenge of Brexit and the pandemic, both of which sent ripples through every business in the country. Catherine describes those early months in 2020 as a rollercoaster for Lynher.
Embracing change
‘We were supplying supermarket deli counters and they went. We supplied airlines, they went. We supplied restaurants. They went. We had quite a lot of work with Premier League then there weren’t any football matches. We were exporting and there were problems with exporting into both Australia and America, for varying reasons. The dairy had to work in a completely different way. It became a moment where you take a step back and think about how you want the business to be going forward. We didn’t necessarily go rushing to get some of that business back. We replaced it with other business, the kind we really wanted to be working with; it was definitely a case of swings and roundabouts and in the face of adversity, good things can happen. There were definitely some positives, as I think many people would say. It took about 18 months, probably until September 2021, before we felt really confident in what we were doing and the direction we were heading in’.
Online sales through the website increased and traffic to the site rocketed; people liked what they saw and read.
‘Pre Covid, we mainly sold our 900g baby truckles of Cornish Yarg to customers already in the know, very often as a thank you or birthday gift, but the appetite for specialist, artisan, hand-made cheese delivered to your door grew, so we enhanced our online shop. We now sell all sorts of different sizes, including wedges and hampers, tasting packs, even beeswax wraps.’ says Catherine.
Shopping local
The ‘shop local’ mindset, had by so many during the pandemic, has continued to make a difference too. There is now a small shop at Lynher Dairies in Ponsanooth, which sells beef, milk and ice cream too. It’s all part of the new Lynher offering, underpinned by the 2019 purchasing of the dairy’s own herd of Ayrshire cows.
‘No longer is farming seen as a bucolic pastime or way of life, it’s really quite sharp. It’s got some massive issues to deal with, but it’s exciting to be part of the food revolution.’
Recognition of Lynher’s excellence came earlier this year with a visit to the dairy from the Duke of Cornwall, now King Charles III.
‘It was the greatest privilege and honour, and everybody in the dairy felt that every inch of the way. He is the patron of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association and has a genuine interest, understanding and commitment to cheese. We had some really interesting conversations about the role of artisan cheese in the market, the challenges that we face and the opportunities that we have.
‘But of course, we love having visitors and now that we’ve opened a small dairy shop where people can pop in for an ice cream or a bottle of our own milk, we’ll hopefully see more and more.’
Lynher Dairies has evolved and embraced change, working creatively to overcome challenges to create a new shopping experience for its customer base. If you would like more information about Lynher Dairies or their shop, visit their website.
Expert support for your food and drink business
Bishop Fleming works with similar sector-leading food and drink businesses, offering a collaborative approach and extensive experience to growing businesses in our regions. If you would like to be part of our food and drink network and hear about our forthcoming Food and Drink Club events, sign up here.
If you are interested in speaking at one of our Food and Drink Club events, get in touch with our team. We hold them across all our office locations and have inspiring talks from Frobishers, Rule of Tum and Boston Tea Party.
