13
Tim and
Simon Jones compliment each other’s strengths to benefit the business.
on your own now.” From then on Simon worked away, quickly learning from his mistakes. “Our aim initially was to spend
as little money in the start, using a bulk tank was a cheaper option to allow me to find out if I enjoyed making it and if I could make something that was edible. It was a case of learning from mistakes and some of my early batches ended up on the muck heap,” explains Simon. Simon says it is all very well
making something, but firstly the product has to be excellent and secondly you have to find a market for it. He believes that starting in a small way allowed them to grow with demand without the pressure and there is no doubt that Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese has successfully grown. “We had
been brought up to appreciate really good food, Mum was a Cordon Bleu chef and this helped us aim to produce a high quality product,” says Simon. In the first year Simon made
cheese he made three tonnes which was sold at nine months old, now more than three tones of cheese is made every week with a sales forecast of 170 tonnes for 2016. Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese is an artisan cheese made with raw milk and is targeted at a niche market. It is a cross between cheddar and a French alpine cheese. In the early days because
production was only a couple of times a week, sales of cheese were limited and local cheese shops were rationing customers to a quarter of a pound each. “Our biggest break came in
1996,” says Simon, “We won supreme champion at the British Cheese Awards in London, beating 400 other cheese makers. This came at a perfect time and people started to take us seriously. We had taken on Richard Tagg in 1993 to help with production and in 1995 an old grain shed was converted in to a larger cheese dairy with a proper cheese vat.” By 1998 the Jones family
had purchased a half share in the wholesaler that had been distributing Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese. Af ter two years Simon and Tim decided to split from the wholesalers. “Sales had peaked through the wholesaler. They were missing opportunities although it had been a valuable beginning for sales of cheese. They had the
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