Cheesemaker says business is ‘the busiest ever’ after bouncing back from fire that destroyed £24k of cheese

A Northampton cheesemaker says business is “the busiest it has ever been”, after bouncing back from a fire that destroyed £24,000 worth of cheese.

On December 20, 2022, the owner of Cobblers Nibble, Gary Bradshaw, discovered an electrical fire had left two months of hard work burnt and charred – which weighed a whopping 150 kilos.

After six weeks off work following the “devastating” fire, Gary is back doing what he loves most.

He knew as soon as he saw the soot and smoke in his workshop that he would be out of action for months, and it took four solid weeks of cleaning and replacing equipment to get it looking like new.

As it takes around six weeks for cheese to age, Cobblers Nibble was not able to properly sell again until March 20 – despite Gary’s return to making cheese on January 31.

Gary said: “The first two batches, which weighed 400 kilos, instantly sold out and were gone within two weeks.

“It’s been crazy and business has been busier than ever before.”

After having to cancel many food shows, Gary recently attended his first one back since the fire, in Bletchley.

That was an attempt to ease himself back in, as he has four markets planned for this weekend (April 1 and 2) – Daventry Town Centre, Elliotts’ Rectory Farm, Cranfield and Bedford Flea Market.

“There will be no cheese left by the end of the weekend,” said Gary, who is currently working 12 hour days, seven days a week to make as much cheese as he can.

Despite having to work harder to build up his stock and admitting he is “overstretched”, the cheesemaker says he is “feeling very positive”.

All suppliers of Cobblers Nibble, which is part of Hamm Tun Fine Foods in Long Buckby, are now fully stocked once again.

Gary said: “We have more customers following the fire and we wouldn’t be here without everyone’s support during the tough times.”

Excitingly, Gary has still found time to experiment and is hoping to launch brie in store from June or July.

He says it has turned out “fantastically” and is currently negotiating for some new equipment from France.

You can visit Cobblers Nibble’s Twitter page here.