Somerdale International celebrates record US sales
The record sales figures were boosted by a strong performance over the holiday season fourth-quarter period. The news of the record sales come at a time when Somerdale is preparing to showcase its range of British cheeses at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco from January 19 to 21, 2020.
Somerdale’s sales now represent an estimated 25% of all UK cheese exports to the US, with around a quarter being sold as part of the Somerdale family of brands. These include the ‘Westminster’ brand, which is set to be boosted further with the launch at Winter Fancy Food of ‘Westminster - Gold Hill Cheddar’ a sweet mature cheddar, aged for over 12 months. At the same time, the entire ‘Westminster’ range will move to a smaller 5.3oz (150g) pack size in response to both customer and consumer demand.
Somerdale director, Alan Jenkins, said, “The US is our most important international market and we are delighted to be seeing strong year-on-year growth.
“From Somerdale’s perspective, the Winter Fancy Food Show is a great opportunity to showcase our comprehensive range of high quality, branded and customer specific British cheeses. We look forward to meeting new and existing customers and sampling with them the very best of British cheese including aged cheddars, regional territorial cheeses, Blue Stilton – ‘the King of British Cheese’ and our growing range of blended cheeses such as the iconic Wensleydale and Cranberries.
“Of course these are currently turbulent times with tariffs, trade wars and political uncertainty giving rise to some short term headwinds but Somerdale remains positive about the prospects for further growth in the US market. We remain fully committed to reinforcing our position as the leading supplier of British cheese to the US market as demonstrated by our ongoing investment in our dedicated US sales & support team and launch at Winter Fancy Food of our new ‘Westminster - Gold Hill Cheddar’.”
Based in Wellington, England, Somerdale International is a UK exporter of British cheese and dairy products to more than 50 countries worldwide. Now in its 31st year of operation, it employs 28 staff and has global sales of around $50m.
