It's nine months since a Pahi couple invested their life savings and the money from the sale of their boat and car into a new business initiative - a mobile cheese store.
Peter and Thea Simays hit the road last December with their mobile shop, a specially refitted, health-certified truck, selling
They are happy with they way the business is growing and while it is not yet supporting itself they are confident that will happen in the near future. Word of mouth about the tasty products brings in new customers every day.
From the Netherlands, the couple have had many years' retail experience, including owning a delicatessen which they sold six years ago.
They say in Holland cheeses wagons are on almost every street. "Cheese on Wheels'' imports all its hard and semi-hard cheeses (40 varieties) but the soft cheeses are sourced from within New Zealand. They may have the biggest range of goat and sheep cheese in New Zealand (great for lactose-intolerant people), plus buffalo cheeses and the cow's-milk type. Quark and a larger range of soft cheeses are in the pipeline.
They describe themselves as cheese enthusiasts who want to share this passion, knowledge and taste experiences. "While New Zealand is known as the land of milk and honey, Holland is the land of cheese,'' says Thea.
The Dutch eat cheese at least three times a day, and it is part of the daily diet in many other European and Mediterranean countries.
The business idea came about after they failed to find enough work as counsellors, something they had trained for after selling the deli. They felt a speciality cheese shop in one area would struggle, and remembering the cheese wagons from back home, they decided having the freedom to travel would sustain better business opportunities.
While they are excluded from selling at Growers or Farmer markets they now have regular market days and spots from Whangarei and Dargaville in the North, Mangawhai and Ruakaka in the east to Coatesville in the south. "Coatesville is particularly busy,'' Peter said. "Many Auckland customers now know what days we will be there and ring to check before coming out to buy their favourites or try something new.
"New Zealanders are still getting used to the wide selection of cheeses we have available and we also have adjusted what we buy to suit New Zealander's tastes.''
Thea said: "For `seasoned' cheese lovers, cheese can create an emotional experience - linked happy memories - recreating that memory by enjoying that special taste again is away of reliving the experience. This is what we are aiming at ... making buying cheese a pleasurable experience.''
She said initially it was hard to find good sources. "Affordability limited the range we could import because shipping in small quantities caused problems, particularly with space in cool-storage containers. We are working towards increasing volumes to get around this difficulty.''
Their biggest seller remains Maasdam - a sweet, moist, buttery semi-hard Dutch cheeses similar to a Swiss Emmentaler. Other rising stars are Prima Donna - Maturo, Fino, Leggari and Forte, all international award-winners. ``We are loving it. The people contact gives us a real buzz and we are happy knowing we are providing the pleasures of cheese at good, affordable, wholesale prices - that's what our business is all about,'' said Thea.
Prices start at $2.50 per 100 grams.
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