Supporting your success 1 NW I Issue 35 I 2013 Harvey Cheese is distinctively packaged and easily recognisable by consumers. Robert St Duke and his wife Penny, purchased an existing cheese factory nearly 15 years ago. With no previous experience, they set about learning the art of cheese making and now produce a range of premium quality award winning boutique cheeses. A lifelong passion for food The success of Harvey Cheese has been built on boundless enthusiasm and determination. For Robert St Duke and his wife Penny it was a matter of jumping in with both feet. “I’ve been in food all my life so the transition (to cheese) was not huge. I already understood the hygiene and processing side of it. But I still had to learn to make cheese. “After an intensive one week residential course at Werribee in Victoria I came home a qualified cheese maker.” “It was a very hands-on course, but a lot of theory as well — that bit I don’t enjoy. But, you never stop learning. It is a craft,” Robert said. Eight handcrafted cheese styles are made from cow, sheep and goat milk under the banner of “Ha Ve” (Harvey Cheese) , with plans to also introduce camel cheese to the range. Quality first Harvey Cheese are family owned and operated, specialising in making cheese to time-honoured methods using only the freshest, creamiest milk. The local Harvey Agricultural College supplies milk from their dairy, sheep-milk is supplied from Roelands and goats’ milk is sourced from Busselton - all in the state’s South West. The cheese making process is very similar to winemaking in the crafting, maturing and the way yeasts are handled. Most cheese makers of any size use machines and it can be difficult to prevent cross-contamination with strong flavours, like chilli. At Harvey Cheese, all cheeses are handmade and every batch is separate. Harvey Cheese is one of very few factories that successfully do white and blue vein cheeses in the same room. What sets their gourmet cheese apart from others is the love and care with which they handcraft every batch of cheese. NW 43 I 2014 Small producer case study: Harvey Cheese noteworthy Small landholder series
Transcript
Supporting your success 1
NW I Issue 35 I 2013
Harvey Cheese is distinctively packaged and easily recognisable by consumers.
Robert St Duke and his wife Penny, purchased an existing cheese factory nearly 15 years ago.
With no previous experience, they set about learning the art of cheese making and now produce a range of premium quality award winning boutique cheeses.
A lifelong passion for foodThe success of Harvey Cheese has been built on boundless enthusiasm and determination.
For Robert St Duke and his wife Penny it was a matter of jumping in with both feet.
“I’ve been in food all my life so the transition (to cheese) was not huge. I already understood the hygiene and processing side of it. But I still had to learn to make cheese.
“After an intensive one week residential course at Werribee in Victoria I came home a qualified cheese maker.”
“It was a very hands-on course, but a lot of theory as well — that bit I don’t enjoy. But, you never stop learning. It is a craft,” Robert said.
Eight handcrafted cheese styles are made from cow, sheep and goat milk under the banner of “Ha Ve” (Harvey Cheese) , with plans to also introduce camel cheese to the range.
Quality firstHarvey Cheese are family owned and operated, specialising in making cheese to time-honoured methods using only the freshest, creamiest milk.
The local Harvey Agricultural College supplies milk from their dairy, sheep-milk is supplied from Roelands and goats’ milk is sourced from Busselton - all in the state’s South West.
The cheese making process is very similar to winemaking in the crafting, maturing and the way yeasts are handled.
Most cheese makers of any size use machines and it can be difficult
to prevent cross-contamination with strong flavours, like chilli.
At Harvey Cheese, all cheeses are handmade and every batch is separate.
Harvey Cheese is one of very few factories that successfully do white and blue vein cheeses in the same room.
What sets their gourmet cheese apart from others is the love and care with which they handcraft every batch of cheese.
NW 43 I2014
Small producer case study: Harvey Cheese
noteworthySmall landholder series
Supporting your success 2
NW I Issue 35 I 2013
Harvey Cheese at factory on the South West Highway in Wokalup.
large and easily recognisable, with or without glasses.
It is easy to see and read in a crowded display cabinet.
You can segment your target audience by product, location, demographics, industry or function, customer values, culture and many more.
Joining associations linked to your target audience can also be a great way to get to know more about the way they think.
Robert needed to learn about their market, and found there was no better way to do that than getting involved in the community.
He joined the Tourist Association because a large proportion of his business relies on tourists.
Keeping it small and localChasing the quantities required for the larger markets goes against the Harvey Cheese philosophy of quality first and foremost.
NW 43 I 2014
Marketing is crucialEstablishing and highlighting a point of difference or a unique selling point is a key aspect of promoting a business.
Customers need to know what it is about your business that is going to make them choose yours over others.
Every small business should develop and maintain a brand and establish a unique selling point before choosing the best way to promote products to customers
Apart from handcrafting, Harvey Cheese is the only cheese maker in Australia making flavoured brie in commercial quantities.
That’s their drawcard, they even have curry-flavoured brie.
They also have developed quirky names for their range of products to help them stand out from the crowd and be remembered, with the customers enjoying the names, nearly as much as the cheese!
At their Wokalup premises, cheese tasting is offered as part of the customer experience before they choose from the range of quirky labels.
They have a camembert that has vanilla beans in it, so they call it Flat White — it’s flat and it’s white.
Other names include OMG (Oh, my God) camembert, Ash Blonde, Ring Stinger, Neil’s Fault, Wicked and Rodent’s Revenge and it is nearly as much fun browsing the shelves and wondering what the cheese maker was thinking as it is eating the cheese.
While the names are certainly quirky, there is a well-honed marketing strategy behind every one.
“I listened to the customers. They told me what to call our popular camembert. They’d taste it and say, ‘Oh, my God!’
“It’s a triple-cream camembert, which they either couldn’t say or couldn’t remember.”
“Now they come in and ask for, ‘six packs of OMG, thank you’,” said Robert.
And then there is Rodent’s Revenge.
The name was inspired by a well-known old French story of mice sampling cheeses overnight and leaving notes rating the delicacies for the cheese makers.
Knowing the marketDoing your research on your target audience is essential.
A part of marketing includes knowing your demographics. Harvey Cheese’s target market is aged 35 and older.
As it has been found that a large proportion of people over 40 wear glasses, Harvey Cheese have developed a logo (“Ha Ve”) that is
Harvey Cheese on supermarket shelves.
For more informationNoteworthy 44 - Marketing for small producers
Noteworthy 48 - Business planning for small producers
Noteworthy 59 - Direct selling channels for small producers
Noteworthy 62 - Promoting your small business
Buy West Eat Best - buywesteatbest.org.au
Contact detailsSmall Landholder Information Service (SLIS) agric.wa.gov.au/small_landholder +61 (0) 8 9733 7777 or +61 (0) 8 9780 6100
Important disclaimer The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Agriculture and Food and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.
“We have no intention of exporting, and no intention to supply Coles or Woolworths, even though we have been approached.”
“We do supply IGA, and with our current facilities we could ramp up production considerably without losing quality.”
“We are comfortable and we make a reasonable profit but we are not greedy.”
The whole thing is done with four full-time staff, Penny and I, and two local staff members,” said Robert.
Harvey Cheese are a great example of a small business Western Australian business that has developed a range of products and established a unique selling position in the marketplace.
