Turnover at the Island Cheese Company on the Isle of Arran has tripled over five years as proprietor Gordon Kinniburgh discovers new markets

I bought the company, which was founded in 1991, five years ago. We make flavoured Cheddars that we supply to more than 100 shops throughout the UK and also sell in our own shop.

The owners of the Bellevue Cheese Company, which makes Arran Blue cheese and a brie-type cheese called Arran Mist, were going to give up the business so I also took that over shortly after.

The biggest change I have made to both businesses is that in the past they mainly produced only enough cheese to sell to tourists and islanders. We have tripled turnover by wholesaling to the mainland into farm shops and delis. Almost two thirds of our flavoured Cheddar goes off the island, whereas it used to be less than 10%.

Arran has a population of 5,000, but 250,000 tourists visit each year. There's an emotional attachment to food eaten on holiday that can create demand afterwards.

I am a member of Taste of Arran, an organisation set up by 10 local producers who came together to create a wholesale marketing, sales and distribution company, taking orders and putting pallets on boats for the mainland. It has a database of 250 wholesale customers.

We serve about 30,000 customers a year in our shop and do about 25 farmers markets per month throughout central Scotland. We also offer a mail order service through our website.

We produce more than 50 tonnes of flavoured Cheddar a year with five full-time staff, while Bellevue produces about seven tonnes with one full-time person.

Arran Blue and Arran Mist are made from island milk, but there is not enough milk on the island to make the amount of cheese we need. So our Cheddar is made in Dumfries for flavouring by us, and is a traditionally made slow-maturing Cheddar, unlike most of the cheaper fast-maturing cheese produced now.

Arran Blue won a silver medal in its class at the British Cheese Awards in 2006 and bronze in the World Cheese Awards last February.

We were the first company in Britain to achieve SALSA (Safe and Local Supplier Approval) accreditation last April, as a way of proving our quality standards.

Sales of island cheese have increased 20% year-on-year. With a new food production building and visitors' centre planned for two years time, hopefully sales will be almost double then what they are now.

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