Lanark Blue cheese bought by... mouse!
Web shoppers snap up 165lb of firm’s produce in a day
A CHEESEMAKER who won a legal fight with watchdogs after they declared his produce unsafe is selling his wares again – but you need a mouse to get some.
Errington Cheese has gone online to rebuild its business – and demand for deliveries from its website shop has been ‘amazing’ since it launched this week.
The firm started taking orders for its Lanark Blue – an unpasteurised cheese at the centre of the row – yesterday.
South Lanarkshire Council had called for Errington produce to be declared unsafe and destroyed after one of its cheeses, Dunsyre Blue, was linked to an E.Coli outbreak in 2016.
The company, based near Carnwath, Lanarkshire, had thousands of pounds worth of cheese confiscated and founder Humphrey Errington was forced to lay off staff as sales and profits plummeted.
The firm was finally cleared of any wrongdoing in 2018. Sheriff Robert Weir also lifted an order that had prevented two cheeses – Lanark Blue and Cora Linn – from being sold. Mr
Errington, 74, later received £254,000 in compensation for seized cheese.
He then won a second battle for the release of four confiscated batches of Lanark Blue and Cora Linn.
The company has now rebuilt its stocks, taken on three workers and launched its website shop.
Mr Errington’s daughter, Selina Cairns, 40, who runs the business, said the company sold 75kg (165lb) of cheese on the first day.
She added: ‘With the closure of restaurants [due to coronavirus] everybody is moving online, so I decided to have a go at building a website.
‘The response and support have been amazing. The cheese is now on its way down to Devon and Cornwall, which is brilliant.
‘It’s a different business to five years ago. We had nothing left but we have been working things out.’
Companies supplied by Errington also offer its cheeses via their websites, and it is available from an online farmers’ market that offers collection in Peebles. In a Facebook post, Errington bosses pleaded with shoppers to ‘please keep buying cheese online to keep us going while the restaurants are all closed, to help us come out the other side’.
In 2018, as the firm began rebuilding, Mrs Cairns said Christmas sales had doubled from 1.5 tons to 3 tons.
She added: ‘We have been getting huge support from delicatessens and chefs at restaurants in London, like Marcus Wareing.’
That same year, the firm won three medals at the World Cheese Awards.