NEW GLARUS, Wis. — New Glarus Cheese Factory LLC celebrated its first days of business in its brand new facility over Labor Day weekend when it opened its retail store for the public in its namesake town of New Glarus, Wis., a southern Wisconsin area known by tourists for its Swiss-style shops and its cheese.

Though the cheese factory part of the company isn't in operation quite yet, the new 13,000-square-foot facility located near popular tourist destination New Glarus Brewery already is home to a packaging and curing operation. Jeff Jay, the owner and operator of New Glarus Cheese, says the cheesemaking also will be there soon, as he plans to move blue cheese manufacturing into the facility later this year. Then visitors to the store — which already is a stop for some tourist busses — will be able to see cheese production in action. In the meantime, they are able to sample and purchase New Glarus-label cheese made by other cheese factories under the direction of two former Saputo supervisors whom Jay has hired.

New Glarus Cheese is a high-tech cheese manufacturing venture with a tourism twist. Jay has spent the last 16 years traveling around the country working for cheese equipment manufacturers or doing independent consulting, setting up cheese plants for a variety of companies. Now, however, he is combining the cheesemaking expertise he acquired while working as a cheesemaker in his native England with his equipment design experience to bring to the industry a new way of producing cheese.

Jay says he has done a lot of work on blue cheese manufacturing development with the University of Wisconsin and with Doug Peterson, a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker whom he has contracted to work with him on the project. And while this patent holder isn't willing to divulge the secrets behind his specific equipment, Jay also doesn't want his cheesemaking to be hidden deep inside a large industrial-size cheese plant. Instead, he hopes to take advantage of New Glarus tourism and teach consumers a little bit about cheesemaking along the way. With this in mind, the plant features an area where consumers can watch cheese being made.

Jay will be making several different types of blue cheese at a few plants around Wisconsin. At the New Glarus plant, one of the most important cheeses to his business, a specialty table cheese sold under the name Blue Glarus, will be made. He chose blue cheese, he says, because he had some experience with it in England and because blue cheese is growing in popularity in the United States. Jay also believes his blue cheese will fill a necessary niche.

"The blue cheese market was ready for some innovation here," he says. "It's not your standard American blue cheese. It's creamy and mild. It also has less moisture so it keeps better."

Jay also has plans for other blue cheese products as well. Industrial-style blue cheese for salads and other products will be the cheese of which he makes the most. He also has done a pilot on a Stilton-style blue which went well, he says. In addition, he would like to launch a sliceable loaf form of blue cheese this spring. A sheep's milk blue currently is being made by the company but only is available at the retail outlet, he adds.

Starting a specialty cheese business from scratch, including a brand new building, is a big undertaking. But Jay sees the company as a way to be at home more.

"The concept arose a little over two years ago as a means of getting me off the road," he says.

Then again, he's been on the road quite a bit lately, getting the word out about the cheese. Right now much of the cheese has limited availability, but Jay believes he will have enough inventory to start to move the cheese into the retail chain in the second half of January. He is currently looking for distributors, he says, and also working with the smaller specialty grocery chains and restaurants which he believes are his target audience for the table cheese.

"We've got fairly good coverage already, but we need to diversify a little," he says.

The new facility has the capacity to take on a number of cheesemakers' smaller cut and wrap projects, too, and Jay has been spreading the word about that as well.

"We're looking for more non-blue short-run packaging. We're set up to do it very economically," says Jay, who notes that there are different parts of the plant set up for different operations so that there isn't accidental blue mold contamination of cheeses. The company also can offer private label packaging.

Besides blue cheese, Jay is working on an entire line of English cheeses to complement the blue line. The Spring Lane Creamery brand is owned by the Wisconsin Farmers Union but Jay is managing the line and doing the marketing for it. The Wisconsin-made line includes cheeses such as Double Gloucester, Red Leicester and Sage Derby which are packaged in 8- and 16-ounce bars. A retail launch for those cheeses is scheduled for the West Coast, including major California cities, in February.

The cheeses, as well as a selection of imported cheeses Jay handles, can be found alongside Blue Glarus at the factory store. The cheeses also can be found online at www.ngcheese.com, the company's revamped website for both consumers and wholesale buyers. The relaunched website was unveiled Jan. 1 but saw a good amount of traffic during the holiday season due to its gift boxes, Jay says. All told, Jay currently is representing about 60 products that are either under the New Glarus label (both blue cheese and repackaged cheese), the Spring Lane label or imported, making for a good selection, he believes.

Jay also is working closely with Wisconsin Farmers Union on the blue cheese side of the business. This past summer, Wisconsin Farmers Union Specialty Cheese Co., the organization's specialty cheese business, purchased the long-ago-closed Montfort Creamery. While Wisconsin Farmers Union retains ownership of the facility, Jay was responsible for the refurbishment of the plant. The industrial-style blue cheese marketed under the New Glarus label will be made there, he says. The New Glarus plant will be making the specialty table cheese and other cheeses will continue to be outsourced, Jay says.

"We've formed a blue cheese consortium," Jay says.

Jay sees both the Montfort plant and the New Glarus plant as a way to help the Wisconsin dairy business stay strong and to take part in the growing popularity of specialty cheeses.

"I hope to be part of what I see as the revival of the fortunes of the small specialty cheesemaker in Wisconsin," he says.

The New Glarus brand will never get to be extremely large but Jay does hope it will get to be well-known.

"We're looking to get New Glarus as a recognized brand in upscale markets," he says. "We want to establish ourselves as the top quality table cheese blue operation and as an efficient producer of industrial blue," he says.

Spreading the word about the New Glarus name poses a few difficulties outside the Midwest, where "New Glarus" isn't as quickly associated with a Swiss town known for cheese. However, Jay, a resident of New Glarus himself, believes he has a story to tell with the New Glarus name and is working on sales materials that will convey the history behind the name and the cheese. A local graphic artist, Tina White of TW Graphics, created the label for the New Glarus products, a pen-and-ink drawing of New Glarus' main street. The company also is working on recipes for its website and for company literature.

Though he has high hopes for the company, Jay says he wants growth to happen in a controlled fashion. He believes production of Blue Glarus table blue cheese ultimately will be about half of a million pounds annually and that production of the industrial blue cheese will be about 4 1/2 million pounds a year.

"We're far more quality-oriented than quantity-oriented," he says.

CMN