The Fine Cheese Co. is set to open a major new farm shop and café at its HQ near Bath, billed as a “cathedral to cheese”.
The 200-square-metre shop, branded The Fine Cheese Co. Cotswold Way, will open next month and includes a four-metre-long “wall of cheese,” a marble-top counter, and a café with 38 covers. A new bakery and production kitchen are also part of the new construction.
“Cheese is central to what we do, so we wanted to create a cathedral to cheese with high ceilings and an oak-framed glass-fronted extension,” explained retail operations manager Oliver Sutton. “We carry around 190 cheeses in our range and will offer around 90-100 in the shop, with the selection rotating seasonally. There will also be a broader representation of what we do with all our other products, plus partner brands and other local and seasonal foods.”
The shop, which has 70 parking spaces, is located at the former Marshfield Bakery opposite Fine Cheese’s maturing rooms and headquarters on Tolldown Farm, on the A46 close to junction 18 of the M4.
“It’s a busy main road with a lot of passing clientèle, and we’re on the Cotswold Way, which is popular with walkers and cyclists, so footfall is really good,” said Sutton. “Places such as Gloucester Services have shown that there is a market for good food and drink on busy roads. But the new shop will also be a great place for us to host trade customers from across the UK and abroad. Our door has always been open, but this gives us the space to really showcase what we are about. We see it as a multifaceted space for the public and the trade.”
The Fine Cheese Co. has a shop in Bath, which has been open for around 30 years. “[We] began as a retail shop, so it has always been important to us, and there are opportunities out there for good shops in the right locations,” said Sutton. “We don’t have grand plans to open more bricks-and-mortar sites after Cotswold Way, but never say never.
According to Fine Cheese’s annual report on Companies’ House, pre-tax profits increased to £667,000 in the year to 31 March 2025, while turnover increased 21% to £25m. Exports accounted for 44% of revenue.
This article first appeared in the March issue of Fine Food Digest.
