Based in Blagdon, in rural Northumberland, the Northumberland Cheese Company Ltd specialises in making hand-made regional cheeses from cow, goat and sheep milks.
“When I started, I had no idea that I would end up where I am. It just seemed a good idea at the time, and that is pretty much still my philosophy. That’s probably why it’s taken me 20 years to grow to £750,000.”
Managing Director, Mark Robertson may have had pretty vague plans for business success, but he still recognises the value of research and planning at all stages of a business, from initial start-up through to day-to-day running.
“I like making choices; I like making decisions, and I’m not so wild about it as I used to be. I’m willing to go and learn and get some information, but running the business does impact on doing that. That’s why I have had to try to delegate, to free myself up, so I don’t go to the dairy every day now. I try to give myself some space.”
Starting up proved far from straightforward for Mark:” I was writing out invoices. I was writing out delivery notes and duplicating and losing bits of paper.
Lack of proper facility, lack of understanding marketing, not the right premises - everything was against me. No understanding of accounts - it was just mad what I did.”
“Cash is always the key. Too many businesses go down because they trust their debtors. That was a hard lesson and I got hurt”.
Mark now uses Sage software to help him manage his business and his time. “I’ve learnt that I’m not good at everything and so I’ve learned to delegate and learnt to find skills that I need to get. I think that it’s important, but at an early stage, you’ve got to do everything.”
“It has grown by default at times, and has been a struggle, but I think I have created something for the North East. Cheese wasn’t here before - local, quality cheese, and there will be a couple of cheeses here long after I’ve gone.”
