Passion for cheese leads pair to a tasty business

Drew Watson set up company near Comrie with Pierre Leger in 2016

How and why did you start in business? We both reached a stage in our lives where we were fed up of working hard for somebody else to reap the benefits. Our backgrounds are in fire safety equipment sales and maintenance and after many years in catering, I moved to speciality food wholesale.

Pierre had an idea to start a business and we talked in great length then started the process of founding the company.

How did you get to where you are today?

Recipes were easy. After 13 years of buying and selling cheese in Scotland, Pierre knew what was missing: rind washed cheese. There is only one other producer operating in Scotland.

We struggled for a few months to find the right premises. We knew from our research the floor had to be of the best possible quality and the unit at Cultybraggan, on the outskirts of Comrie, had a beautiful stone-tiled floor. We employed a local builder who transformed the unit.

We sourced equipment from France and Germany and Pierre went on a cheesemaking course and practised extensively at home.

For the first few months, our results were very erratic.

We enlisted the help of a consultant, who gave us a few tips and recommendations but the real revelation was a phone call with another cheesemaker who revealed that after four months our cultures would start to establish in our environment. About a week later we started to achieve the result we were looking for.

We started supplying local delis and talking to everybody who would listen, using contacts we had in the wholesale industry and distributing to hotels and restaurants in Scotland. Farmers’ markets proved to be a lifeline for us.

Who has helped you along the way?

We have been mentored by enterprise support organisation Growbiz and Business Gateway in such a way that it is very easy to dip in and select courses and services which are most beneficial to us.

What was your biggest mistake?

One possible mistake is that we purchased a smaller vat when, in hindsight, we should have taken a bigger one to produce more cheese. But at that stage we had to be frugal and budget for what we could afford.

What is your greatest achievement to date?

The high points have been very high and we have had a general month-on-month increase in sales.

However, the best moment for me was the world cheese awards in November 2016. We sent one cheese to the competition in Spain, not expecting to win. We were overwhelmed when we won a gold medal.

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

We are looking to improve the equipment in the creamery in the near future to produce more cheese so that we can

approach wholesalers and cheesemongers in the whole of the UK. Do you want to recruit in the future?

We are hoping to be able to offer our part-time worker a full-time job and then recruit another employee.

Any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?

Strathearn Cheese Co founders Pierre Leger and Drew Watson with some of their awardwinning products.