You may have seen the headlines – Gen Z ‘hates Stilton’, the historic British blue is ‘facing extinction’ and is ‘under pressure’ amid allegedly falling sales. But is the situation with one of the most famous cheeses so challenging? We catch up with two speciality cheese wholesalers to find out.
“Some things come in and go out of favour, don’t they,” Andrew Swinscoe of speciality cheesemonger The Courtyard Dairy told us. “We have an ‘experience’ generation at the moment that wants to taste and experience something new. Stilton, like a lot of the traditional British cheeses, has kind of fallen out of favour. It’s not ‘cool’, ‘new’ or ‘innovative’. And so as a result, it’s not as popular.
“But actually, the demand for cheese and the demand for speciality cheese, I don’t think has dropped.”
One of the challenges for Stilton is that it’s seen both as a speciality and a commodity cheese, on a par with Cheddar and Leicestershire, he suggested. “But Stilton is a lot harder to make, it’s more complex and commands a higher price. For a lack of a better word, it’s become a little bit old-fashioned in its appeal. That, for me, is the main reason for its decline.”
Stilton's special status
Stilton enjoyed Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status while the UK was a European Union membe; post-Brexit, the cheese is part of the UK Geographical Indication (GI) scheme. This means it can only be made in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Producers have to follow traditional recipes that have been around for generations. According to the Stilton Cheesemakers Association, making Stilton takes about nine weeks in total - from milk to shelf.
He continued: “Port and sherry went through a similar blip years ago and put a lot of effort in trying to appeal to the new generation, commit their packaging a bit more. So I don’t’ know if Stilton needs to reinvent yourself; that’s not to say the quality isn’t brilliant.”
The speciality cheese market has also grown in recent years. “There’s been a resurgence in farmhouse-type blue cheeses,” Swinscoe told us. “Decades ago, if you went into a supermarket, you’d get Stilton, Gorgonzola and Danish Blue.
“Now, in supermarkets alone, you’ve got a whole gambit of blue cheese; and in speciality cheesemongers, you have things like Stichelton and Old Blue. All those compete in that Stilton market.
“For many years, Stilton was the British blue cheese. Whereas now, there’s a lot of artisan and blue cheeses out there; and some of those are even made by Stilton producers.”
Andrew Swinscoe, The Courtyard Dairy
One such cheese is Beauvale, made by Cropwell Bishop Creamery. According to the 160 year-old family cheesemakers, Beauvale is ideal for those that prefer ‘a milder blue flavor’.
“I really like the diversity in Stilton,” Swinscoe said. “A lot of people view it like, ‘It’‘s just Stilton, isn’t it? Whereas I seek out a particular producer and they all bring a different style and different thing to the table. That’s really important. Some of them go for the more mass market appeal; others are stronger or more intense; and some go for creamy richness.
“So even within that one category, there’s diversity – and we should celebrate that diversity.”
But does Stilton’s popularity problem translate into a sales problem for The Courtyard Dairy?
“At our end, blue cheese sales are well, if not better than they’ve been,” Swinscoe told is. “We’re as busy as we’d like to be.
“It’s been a challenging year for a lot of cheese businesses. Restaurant wholesale has suffered a little bit, mail order is nowhere where it was since the COVID days. So retail has performed strong, particularly for us.
“We’re running into our busy season and I think that we’ll probably achieve what we would like to achieve this year.”
Neal’s Yard Dairy’s managing director Sarah Stewart shared similar insights regarding consumer perceptions. “Blue cheese is an interesting and varied category, from sheep’s milk Beenleigh Blue with sweet sherry flavours, to savoury and marmite-y raw milk Stichelton, to soft and fruity Pevensey Blue,” she opened.
“Sometimes, a customer might say that they don’t like blue cheese, possibly from tasting something that was very strong, over-blue and peppery. We encourage them to have a taste and almost without exception they are won round.”
“If the cheese tastes great then its appeal is cross-generational.”
Sarah Stewart, Neal’s Yard Dairy
Across Neal’s Yard Dairy, Colston Bassett Stilton is the single best-selling cheese, the MD added, suggesting Stilton is ‘clearly very popular’ as a whole.
As for how to attract the younger consumer cohort, social media ‘is increasingly important’, Stewart added. “It’s a great way to get inspiration for recipes or pairing suggestions. Personally, I really enjoy the beautiful cheeseboards that people post about.”
Export is also a key part of growing sales for Neal’s Yard Dairy. “Stilton is one of the best-known cheeses in the world, so export is very important,” she told us. “Colston Bassett Stilton and Shropshire Blue are cheeses that we sell in significant volumes – worldwide, but especially in Europe and the USA.
“Other blue cheeses like Stichelton are also exported and go to more specialist retailers – less significant in terms of volume but as important in terms of highlighting how amazing British blue cheese is.”
But just like Stilton’s fairly traditional profile, its consumption is also very much tied to winter. “Stilton continues to be more seasonally popular, with a significant portion of our sales coming at Christmas,” Stewart said. “People tend to buy bigger chunks at this time of year, too.
“This year, sales have been slower to build but fortunately, they are catching up quickly.
“It’s always a rollercoaster trying to predict: will we have enough cheese, will it be ripe enough on Christmas Eve, will we have too much?
“The one thing we can predict is that all our blue cheese will be absolutely delicious – and that every cheeseboard should include at least one blue cheese.”
Long Clawson Dairy is one of the handful of Stilton producers that continues to operate in the UK. The company exhibited at September’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair, where we caught up with commercial director James Maher about demand from younger consumers and what Clawson Farms is doing to attract them into the fold.
“When we do market research, we see which ages correspond with demand - and it’s not the younger [consumers].
“The profile of the traditional Stilton consumer is older - and we need to find ways to attract more age groups into the category.
“That said, we have added several different formats to our portfolio – blue cheese slices and cooking sauces. And we’ve also innovated with packaging – our 1912 Stilton has easy-to-open packaging.”
So are younger shoppers more willing to buy processed cheese over traditional Stilton? “Yes, we have seen that this type of younger consumer would pick slices over traditional blue cheese,” he said. “It’s still a way to get acquainted with the taste, which is probably the main hurdle for those not used to it.”
In addition to blue cheese, Clawson Farms has recently launched a range of wax truckles, with the aim to plug a gap in demand for heritage truckles with a more contemporary feel, we were told.
Feeling blue?
We’ve heard from speciality cheesemongers and a Stilton producer; so, what’s the latest UK retail sales data suggestive of?
According to Nielsen data published by the AHDB, Stilton and British blue cheese volumes have dipped around 2.2% YoY, with spend also decreased by around 2%. The average price of Stilton has remained largely flat, at circa £12.60 ($15.80 in current currency terms) YoY; (for reference, the average price of cheddar is just over half of that, at £7.60/$9.54 according to the same dataset).
This suggests Stilton’s higher cost may be hitting demand at a time when British consumers continue to grapple with the cost of living crisis; in the 12 months to October 2024, the UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.3%, up from 1.7% in September.
According to Kantar, blue cheese sales - of which Stilton forms part - have been on the increase in the past year. A spokesperson told us: “Sales of blue cheese have risen by 6% in year to September 29, to reach more than £124m ($155m).
“This growth is driven by shoppers supporting local, British-made blue cheese, with volume growth up 4% versus last year and, in comparison, to continental blue cheese where volume sales have remained flat.”
(Kantar and Nielsen use their own distinct methodologies and their data can therefore differ.)
Meanwhile, British producers of the historic blue cheese may soon shrink to four after Arla Foods announced Tuxford & Tebbutt Creamery - which has been making Stilton since 1780 - is set to close. This follows the 2020 closure of Webster’s Dairy in Leicestershire.
Export markets, new formats to engage a new consumer cohort and a focus on raising awareness of what goes into the making of artisanal cheese may all be key elements in safeguarding the future of Stilton and British blue cheese.