Paxton & Whitfield: Champions of Cheese

London’s oldest cheesemonger has long history of excellence in cheese.

Walking London’s busy Jermyn Street, the heady aroma of cheese is palpable three shops down from Paxton & Whitfield’s flagship store. On its own, the scent is a powerful marketing tool that beckons passersby to come in and explore the carefully curated selection of artisan cheese. If the aroma doesn’t grab their attention, the stunning window displays certainly will.

London’s oldest cheesemonger has a long history of excellence in cheese. In 1850, the company was honored with a Royal Warrant, making it the appointed cheesemonger to Queen Victoria. It was the first of many Royal Warrants Paxton & Whitfield would hold.

Arguably, the company is so rooted in the British psyche that it doesn’t need a marketing plan. However, times change, and brick-and-mortar stores, even those that have been around for nearly 230 years, have had to come up with new and exciting ways to market their wares. Drawing on what makes the brand so special, Paxton & Whitfield is a fine example of a company that continues to deliver what its customers need.

JERMYN STREET: PORTAL TO THE BUSINESS

It’s a sunny day in June, and Jermyn Street is bustling with high-end shoppers and tourists. Tom Richardson, the shop’s retail sales manager, sets out the special board, leans in the doorway, and awaits the day’s first customers. It doesn’t take long before they begin trailing in.

An elderly woman dragging a shopping trolley greets Richardson as if he were an old friend. She enters the shop, politely nods at the two women behind the counter, and gets down to business. “If you don’t mind, love, I’d like 200 grams of Lincolnshire Poacher, as near as you can get, and the same of Pennard Ridge.” The girls nod and get to work cutting and packaging the order.

Outside, an older gentleman stops in front of the window display, a wedding cake made entirely of cheese, and inspects the wheels one by one. His little dog tugs on the leash, urging the man to walk on, but he’s not ready. Instead, he nods at Richardson and asks, “Got anything new in?”

Richardson smiles and rattles off a list as easy as if it were his own phone number. “Would you like to come in for a sample?” Much to the dog’s disappointment, his owner nods. “I’d love to.”

For centuries, cheesemongers have relied on interactions just like these to build customer relations. Eye-catching in-store displays, attentive service, and in-person recommendations make selling high-quality cheese easy. The exchanges provide an opportunity for customers to explore new cheese varieties through touch, smell and taste. But as footfall figures fell during COVID and buying habits shifted to online, a new approach was needed.

PASSION AND ENTHUSIASM WIN THE DAY

When Stephen Cullum first started marketing cheese in the late 1700s, the company was little more than a stall in Aldwych market in London. Stephen’s son, Sam, later moved the business closer to his wealthy customer base near Jermyn Street, where the flagship store still stands today.

Later, Sam took on two partners, Harry Paxton and Charles Whitfield. Together, they grew the company’s reputation steadily, until in 1850 it caught the attention of the royal family. Holding a Royal Warrant offers trade benefits over those who have not been recognized. Over the years, Paxton & Whitfield has held Warrants to King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. To retain the title for so long, and during so many reigns, is a tribute to the company’s focus on quality.

While each of Paxton & Whitfield’s four shops is unique, there’s a common thread that runs through them all. Each shop endeavors to create what Richardson calls “talking points” through eye-catching and fully stocked counters.

“We want the customer to leave with the best cheese possible.”

Tom Richardson, retail sales manager, Paxton & Whitfield

Richardson moves swiftly around the Jermyn Street store, turning wheels and adjusting the little signs with tasting notes as he goes. He chats with a customer as he works, and his enthusiasm and passion is infectious. The two girls behind the counter are just as enthusiastic. They’ve gone through Academy of Cheese training, and have visited many of the artisan cheesemakers whose products they sell. They’re encouraged to regularly sample cheese and share tasting notes with one another.

“We want the customer to leave with the best cheese possible,” says Richardson. “Sometimes it’s quite an intimidating environment for people. There’s a benefit in having staff who are enthusiastic about the product, and can talk passionately about it.”

QUALITY IS KEY

Today, Paxton & Whitfield’s dedication to serving only the best of the best starts with its quality and operations manager and in-house affineur, Jazz Reeves. Throughout the year, she visits artisan cheesemakers and sets aside the best batches for use in the company’s four United Kingdom shops.

In January 2022, Paxton & Whitfield opened its newly built maturation rooms at its head office in Bourton-on-the-Water. The addition of the temperature and humidity-controlled rooms has given Reeves more control during the aging process. Several times each week, Reeves turns the wheels that line the rooms’ wooden shelves, and from time to time she samples them to see if they’re ready for sale. She’s looking for that unique flavor profile Paxton & Whitfield customers have come to love.

Reeves also works closely with artisan dairies to create signature cheeses exclusively for the Paxton & Whitfield brand. King Stone Dairy, for example, makes a Tomme du Savoie-style cheese called Corinium specifically for the shop. Reeves recently partnered with a local coffee company to develop Kaldi, a unique fusion of coffee and goat’s cheese.

James Rutter, managing director, oversees the company’s operations. He’s also responsible for the direction of the business.

“In terms of how we market and sell cheese, I actually think that a lot of the qualities of our business are timeless,” he says. “Dedication to quality, dedication to craftsmanship, working with small, independent producers, and trying to find roots to market for them, as well as timeless qualities of service in terms of how we offer service to our customers.”

While the style of service hasn’t changed, the company’s approach to marketing has. Few cheesemongers reach their customers the way Paxton & Whitfield does, and much of that is thanks to Laura Wood, who is responsible for marketing, online e-commerce and social media. Under her guidance, the company has expanded its online offerings. Customers can place orders for cheeseboards. They can also join virtual tastings.

For GBP 45 (about $60), participants receive a chilled box of five cheeses and a box of crackers, enough for a tasting for four, the day before the tasting.

At a recent tasting, five artisanal cheeses were profiled: Appleby’s Cheshire, Caerphilly Gorwydd, Premiere Cru Gruyere, Blue Stilton from Cropwell Bishop and Camembert. The intense, one-hour journey meandered from the art of cheesemaking to taste and texture to cheese styles and their history.

Behind the scenes, Wood works on Paxton & Whitfield’s blog, sharing cheese recipes developed in-house and educational tips on how to properly cut and store cheese at home. She promotes the company’s three-, six-, nine- and 12-month Cheese Club memberships.

Paxton & Whitfield’s social media accounts are both educational and fun. In a recent post, Wood encouraged followers to try three different Comte cheeses to learn to taste the subtle differences that come with age. The community is also encouraged to share their own cheese photos tagged with #cheeselove for the chance to win a prize draw. Their online content is arguably just as engaging as an in-store experience.

“The aim is to inspire, excite, and inform, not necessarily to sell,” says Wood.

Paxton & Whitfield was also one of the first U.K. cheesemongers to offer an industry-recognized cheese training program through its partnership with the Academy of Cheese. Level One takes turophiles beyond tasting and teaches them how cheese is made and matured. Since its inception in 2013, Paxton & Whitfield has been a patron and training partner for the Academy of Cheese. Richardson, of the Jermyn Street location, is an Academy of Cheese instructor.

Over the last two centuries, Paxton & Whitfield has been greatly successful in building and maintaining a strong community of cheese lovers. They have supported artisan cheesemakers in the U.K. and beyond, and brought the best of the best to the plates of cheese-loving Brits.

Much of that success has been due to how its employees educate and excite customers, and for the most part, those relationships are thanks to interactions in their brick-and-mortar stores. Transitioning from in-store sales to e-commerce, has no doubt been incredibly challenging. Arguably, Paxton & Whitfield has been successful because it has focused on the same timeless virtues that its reputation is founded on: respect for quality, heritage and craftmanship, and excellence in service.