Inspirational Cheese Retailers 2025: The Cheese Shop, Nantwich

The Cheese Shop
Location: Nantwich
Founders: Nick Birchall and Chris Hogan
Founded: 2020

“People love cheese in this area – cheese runs through their veins more than blood,” Nick Birchall, co-founder of The Cheese Shop in Nantwich chuckles.

With cheesemaking stretching back centuries in Cheshire, everyone knows someone, or has someone within their family, who’s worked in the county’s dairy industry – it’s a topic locals take very seriously indeed.

Nick himself has fostered a love of cheese from a young age, coming from generations of cheesemakers, and he wears this affection proudly on his sleeve at the business he founded with his partner early in 2020. Those visiting The Cheese Shop are guaranteed two things; one, an awe-inspiring display both in the counter and through the impressive glass wall; and two, that they will be met with warmth, friendliness and exuberance by both Nick and his partner Chris Hogan, who adore chatting cheese, and providing what they call “good old-fashioned service”.

An education

As well as attracting self-professed foodies, Nick says he and Chris are delighted to help educate locals and visitors on the topic of cheese. Often those conversations are first sparked when people experience a glance through the glass wall to their cheese storage room for the first time. “We get so many ‘wows’ and people asking us what’s in there,” Nick smiles. “They can see all the big Stiltons and Cheddars on display. It’s a great feature of the shop. We have a lot of school parties come in to see the cheese too. We’re just around the corner from Nantwich Museum, so little ones will learn about local history there, then come into The Cheese Room for a taster of Cheshire cheese afterwards, finding out what ‘real cheese’ is.” It’s a mutually beneficial agreement. “Often it gets the mummies and daddies coming in later on!”

Nick says they’re proud to have a shop right in the heart of traditional British cheesemaking. “We’re always shouting about British cheeses.”

A tasting journey

That’s not to say European varieties, or even cheeses from further flung locations are off the board.

During lockdown The Cheese Shop got through an enormous amount of Raclette, Nick recalls. “People couldn’t get out on their skiing holidays, so they were buying half or whole wheels. I was going through so many wheels a week. People were saying ‘what the hell are you doing with it all’?”

“Since lockdown people have been travelling a lot more. They try cheeses, then come in and ask, ‘can you get in this?’. We always try our best, and we’re constantly looking for new cheeses. For the last two years we’ve brought cheese back from America, which people love and want more of. When I tell them it’s American they say, ‘oh really?’, then they try it and can’t believe how good it is!”

The counter at The Cheese Room firstly champions products from the North and the rest of Britain, before foraying off to foreign climes, with 120 to 130 usually on display, until Christmas when that number almost doubles. “We ramp it up like nobody’s business,” Nick laughs. “When I’m ordering I’ll say, ‘how are we going to sell all this cheese?’, and it’s frightening but it does sell. People queue for an hour, and we’ll have four people on the counter. It’s crazy! I sold 15 whole Nantwich Blues last year!”

Serving with style

Nick is the first to admit he’s a talker, but that’s part of the appeal of a visit to The Cheese Shop, he thinks. “People like to come and talk, but we also like to listen, and to tell them about the cheeses. It’s very personal service. A lot of people we’ve got to know through the shop, so we’ll ask how they’re getting on, or how their family are.”

This attention, he points out, should never waver, even at busy, peak times. “We never rush anyone through. At Christmas my big thing to all the staff is telling them not to look up at the queue outside. You’ve got to concentrate on the person in front of you. They might only come in once a year, but if we make their experience pleasurable, they will keep on coming back.”

It’s an approach that works, with the shop attracting a wide demographic of regulars, from a teenager who pops in weekly to spend his pocket money on cheese, to young married couples, through to those in their 80s and 90s.

“I think people are fed up with the large multiples holding sway,” Nick thinks. “They’ve realised if they go into an indie, they’re keeping their money in the area and getting better quality and service. They don’t have to scan their own shopping, or pack their own bags. Yes, it will be slightly more expensive, but they’re fed up of being pushed around in a supermarket. I think they also realise, if they don’t use the high street, they’ll lose it, and that’s so important.”