News Updates
We do not currently e-mail news updates, but you can use the following website which will e-mail you when a webpage of ours, such as our news page, changes. This company has a privacy policy too. Just remember to copy and paste the url of our news page in, which is: http://www.houseofcheese.co.uk/acatalog/news.html click here to visit the website- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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| House of Cheese BLOG , Tetbury Gossip, the meaning of the universe ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .NEW CHEESE SELECTIONS (July 2008)... including a new Spicy and Strong selection.CAMILLA BARRED FROM PRINCE OF WALES'S HIGHGROVE SHOP IN TETBURY (May 2008)Royal watchers may be surprised to learn that earlier this week Camilla was barred from the Prince of Wales's new Highgrove shop, which opened in Tetbury in March of this year. All was explained, however, when it transpired that Camilla had fallen foul of the shop's regulations which bar access to the shop to all dogs except Guide Dogs for the Blind and Hearing Dogs. This particular Camilla was an adorable thirteen week old - appropriately enough - Cavalier King Charles spaniel, who was visiting Tetbury for the day with her owners! NEW MILESTONE (May 2008)We've just gone over the seven million hits a year mark. A hit is not a visit and a visit is not a sale, but the more hits the more sales. We thought this year would slow down with the economy cooling. Certainly no slowing on our internet business!E-MAIL PROBLEMS SOLVED - (March 2008)We've had problems with our houseofcheese e-mails, in that we havn't been able to send using those addresses. All e-mails came into us fine though. It was an SMTP BT Yahoo problem which, it appears, affected many on the net over Easter. BT customer service was useless in Bombay, in fact if our customer service was as bad, we would have gone bust long ago. If this problem is affecting you please e-mail us for help with the fix. We carried out our first bulk e-mail offer to previous customers just before Easter and we thought we may have been classed as a 'spammer'. If you are visiting Tetbury, it is extremely busy at the moment as the Prince of Wales has now opened his Highgrove shop and it is attracting lots of customers and gawpers!CHEESES BACK IN STOCK - Ashmore - a very good aged firm cheese. Gourgandine à la Violette is also now available - a very different seasonal cheese. Both cheeses are in our 'Other Firm Cheeses' section (March 2008)2008 UPDATE (February 2008)Another year begins after our annual holiday and we really needed a holiday this year after our busiest year ever. We've decided that after almost two decades of working six (and sometimes seven) days a week we will close our Tetbury shop on Mondays, at least for most of the year; we will probably open Mondays in the autumn and December of course. To be able to actually have the Monday off this means we will not despatch internet orders on a Monday; we will send out orders on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays only. We've noticed some other internet businesses do the same and we hope it is not too much of an inconvenience. So today is one of those Mondays off - but I'm typing this and Jenny is throwing out old files and bagging paperwork to be shredded!THE SUNDAY TIMES' GUIDE TO FOOD ONLINE FOR CHRISTMAS (November 2007)Useful links for Christmas buying. Click here to read the article.COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS (November 2007)Our Christmas planning begins early and our stocks of non-food cheese accessories have now soared. Just when we thought we had enough stock for Christmas, publicity of various sorts meant we have had to re-order many lines already as they have been flying out of our shop. We probably now have the largest range of cheese accessories in the UK. We were featured in the Mail on Sunday in their colour magazine at the end of October and have also been listed in the Guardian Food Directory which is published early in November each year. In addition, a digital television company wanted to make a multi-language, high definition eight minute article for use around the world about our wedding and party cakes. We had to decline that offer until next year. The media has been very kind to us this year. Christmas orders are arriving daily and it can be quite scary to think of our workload in December. Many thanks to all our growing number of regular customers and for their kind comments about our products and service.POSTAL STRIKES (October 2007)We are unaffected by the postal strikes in that we are upgrading every delivery to Royal Mail Parcelforce, who themselves are unaffected. However, as Parcelforce is more expensive for us (but not for you) we currently have a £25 minimum order value on our webshop (excluding VAT and the delivery charge). We will revert to 'no minimum order' when the strikes, official and unofficial, are finished and backlogs are cleared.NEW FIXED PRICE SELECTIONS (October 2007)See our Cheese Selections section for:Christmas Selection £40, Autumn Cheese Selection, The Cheese Survival Kit, Thank You Selection, The Gentleman's Selection, The Gentleman's Alternative Selection, The Lady's Selection, The Gourmet Basket, The Soft Mountain Cheese Basket and Summer Picnic or Dinner Party Cheese Selection. We'll try to add more Christmas Selections, time permitting.NEW SEASON VACHERIN (September 2007)Vacherin du Mont d'Or small 500g, now in stock.NEW CHEESE SELECTIONS (September 2007)In addition to an Autumn Cheese Selection we have added two new selections: The Gentleman's Selection and The Lady's Selection. This year our Father's Day Selection was so popular, it has continually been ordered throughout the summer as a gentleman's gift. We thought it was time we put a permanent selection together of everything men tend to like in their cheeseboards. Not forgetting the ladies, we also used our experience of the sort of cheeses which particularly appeal to them. It tends to be certain strong firm and blue cheeses for the men and usually soft, often really rich cheeses for the women. Enjoy!NEW WEBSITE MAKEOVER (August 2007)Welcome to our new website. All the contents of our old website are still on this new website, plus a few new features. If you can't find a section just e-mail us. For our regular visitors, it's a bit like going around a familiar store to find everything has moved!VISITING THE COTSWOLDS? (July 2007)If you had planned a holiday break in the Cotswolds please don't cancel because of the floods. Although there is widespread flooding in Gloucestershire, you can still get around easily and enjoy this wonderful area. Many businesses are not as lucky as us and don't have a large internet business, so they really need the foot visitors on our streets in these small towns and villages. For many, the summer business is what keeps them going through the winter. Please help them by coming to the Cotswolds.PRICE TURBULENCE (July 2007)We had a rather depressing letter from one of our large suppliers of cheese. After years of stable prices (in fact, we have hardly increased our prices over the last three years) we may well see large rises during the next few months. There is a shortage of milk, a new demand for dried milk from the Chinese, a milk price increase, and several other factors which will affect the price of cheese, not just in Britain, but also in Europe and even beyond. Not just cheese prices will be affected, but also other food products. We will keep our prices as low as we can (we are very competitively priced compared to other cheese retailers and delicatessens) but we can already see some increases ahead and the bad weather this summer will only pile on more price pressure. |
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| TETBURY (20th July 2007) - the day it rained over four inches in ten hours. That's normally two months' summer rainfall.An outdoor Jools Holland concert at nearby Westonbirt was cancelled because water was over the bonnets of cars. The Cirencester and Malmesbury roads were closed. The flood plains in Tetbury were so full you could have moored a boat there!Tetbury is otherwise unaffected now. All roads opened on the 21st and we are operating as normal with electricity and tap water. Other parts of our county are not so lucky. |  |
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| NEW WEDDING & PARTY CAKES (July 2007)More new cakes added, including ones which come with decorations. Even if none of the cakes is the right size for you, we are trying to show the many ways you can decorate any cake. New toppers and pillars for sale too in our shop/cheese wedding cakes section.NEW WEBSITE (June 2007)We are currently in the process of extending, refreshing and updating our website. We have now gone over the six million hits a year mark and we really need to upgrade our software which will allow us to perform more functions, such as a log-in for regular customers, a new product reminder, and various other improvements. We have always used Actinic software and will continue to do so. Just this week we have been awarded a £500 grant towards the cost of our web makeover - the first grant this business has ever had (apart from the fact that the owners surname is Grant)!DARFUR APPEAL (June 2007)For an unusual gift for less than £20, or to just help the people of this war-torn country, you can donate and order hygienic cheese-making equipment which will allow farmers in Darfur, Western Sudan to make cheese from their goat's milk. This will add value to the milk and allow them to earn a reliable income for their families. Click here to go to the World Vision charity website. You can even buy a cow for a family in Sri Lanka on their webshop!A PLACE IN THE RAIN (June 2007)Look out for our shop on Channel 4's 'A Place in the Sun' due to be broadcast early in 2008. Interior and exterior filming, with the show's presenter Jonnie Irwin and two participants from Marlborough, took place at the end of May between torrential downpours!SAY CHEEESE (June 2007)Buy him a Father's Day selection - will usually make an old man really happy! See our cheese selections section of our webshop.OUR YOUTUBE DEBUT (May 2007)Have a look at our brief wedding and party cake clip. View the clip hereWEDDING AND PARTY CAKE STAND HIRE (April 2007)New cake stand hire. Gorgeous silver plated stands to show off that cheese wedding cake or party cake. See our shop/cheese wedding cakes section.TOP UK CHEESE RETAILER RANKING (April 2007)A Google UK search for 'cheese' brings us up in third place. However, we are the top ranked cheese retailer in the UK as the top listing is the British Cheese Board (facts about cheese) and the second rating is a French cheese information site with a link to us as a stockist. Our hits are currently running at 5.75 million a year. The internet has been very kind to our business, although we do still work eighty hours a week, six days a week (more in December). Rankings change constantly but it's nice to be a big cheese for a time!NEW FIXED PRICE SELECTION WITH FREEBIES! (April 2007)Spring Picnic or Dinner Party Selection - will feed twelve people on one occasion or six people twice. Free gifts in our 25th year. See our shop/cheese selections section.POSTAGE INCREASE & PACKAGING UPDATE (April 2007)Our subsidised postage is now £7.50 per order - still the cheapest on the cheese net! Royal Mail Special Delivery postage has just gone up by 35p (up to 2kg), whilst our postage has just increased by 20p. We subsidise large orders over 2kg by quite a lot nowadays. Additionally, we don't charge for any packaging which can be over £2 per order. Most of the packaging materials we use are biodegradeable and most of our packaging 'chips' are now made from vegetable starch. In warm weather we use frozen ice packs which can also be re-used.NEW PRODUCTS (March 2007)New cheeseboards, knives, knife sets, biscuits, chutneys and seasonal cheeses.OUR HOLIDAYS ARE LONG GONE UNTIL 2008 (March 2007)After our usual annual Winter holiday it's back to the grind for another eleven months. Wedding cake orders are now coming thick and fast for the Spring and even one for Christmas 2007 (just when we thought we could put Christmas behind us!) This is the time of year we review our non-cheese stock and look around for more lines. We're very pleased to have sold so many non-cheese items as they expand our webshop and our turnover. This year is the 25th anniversary of our business, so we are running lots of special offers throughout the year.MORE BUSINESS THAN WE COULD HANDLE! (January 2007)Our Christmas business grows each year as regular Christmas customers are joined by ones who used us last year and were obviously pleased with our products and services (we know this from your kind e-mails). We still can't cope with all the orders we could take, so we closed our webshop on 12th December but we processed more orders in December than any other previous Christmas. For 2007 we may run a smaller selection of products during December as we can take more orders for whole items - it's the cutting of pieces which really takes the time! So make sure to place your order by November at the latest before our webshop changes. |
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Royal Visit 30th November 2006 - The Duchess of Cornwall - Photograph © Michael Dunlea
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| WHERE DID 2006 GO? (November 2006)Our really busy period is starting now, although we've been busy all year. This is probably the last news item until 2007. Many thanks to all our regular Christmas customers who increase in number each year. Please be patient with the delivery companies; our Parcelforce driver works really hard and the number of orders in December increases enormously.ANOTHER MILESTONE (October 2006)Over five million hits a year now on our website.NEW PRODUCTS (October 2006)New Cheese Christmas Cakes. See the 'Just for Christmas' section of our website.VACHERIN DU MONT D'OR (September 2006)New season Vacherin arrives with us on 11th September. Fantastic Autumn/Winter cheese from the French Alps.NEW PRODUCTS (August 2006)We've had a really busy Summer. Usually our Summers are a little quieter due to holidays and hot weather, but not this year. Lots of non-cheese new products in our webshop - many more cheese accessories, such as cheese knives, planes, graters, parmesan pots etc. Swiss chocolate disks for Girolles too. We also have created a new section 'Just for Christmas' filled with specially sourced, great tasting products you can receive with your last minute Christmas orders, but you can forward order them now for Christmas. Look out for new Autumn and Winter cheeses soon!FIRST CHRISTMAS ORDER RECEIVED 12TH JULY (July 2006)Ordered from Saudi Arabia for delivery to Aberdeen.WEDDING CAKES GALORE (June 2006)Our wedding cake business is booming, so much so that we need you to give us at least a month's notice, preferably longer. We will take orders with less notice if we can, but it takes us time to get so much stock, in exactly the right condition, at the right time for your wedding. We always pride ourselves on only supplying great cheese, otherwise our wedding business wouldn't last. What you don't see is the cheese we send back that's not up to our standards!IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY! (May 2006)Whilst looking at a competitor's website we were surprised to see one of our own large photographs used as the main picture on their front page. Please be aware that infringment of Copyright is something we take seriously. It takes a great deal of time and effort to photograph our products. Before we developed this cheese business we were involved in Copyright infringment enforcement for an international publisher.EAU DE STILTON (May 2006)The makers of the famously pungent Stilton blue cheese have launched their own perfume and they have approached Cat Deeley to be the face of Eau de Stilton. It claims to "recreate the earthy and fruity aroma" of the cheese "in an eminently wearable perfume". The perfume, blended by a Manchester-based aromatics company, features a "symphony of natural base notes including yarrow, angelica seed, clary sage and valerian. We've ordered a sample and will let you know if we will be stocking it!WEBSITE HITS (May 2006)A new milestone. Over four million hits a year on our website.POSTCODE LOOKUP ADDED (April 2006)Postcode lookup added to our invoice address and delivery address sections. Make sure you have the correct postcode as most couriers work almost exclusively with postcodes as their main identifier.NEW ADDITIONAL URL (April 2006)We also have www.houseofcheese.eu as one of our domains.POSTAGE INCREASE (April 2006)A 7% increase from Royal Mail means we have to increase our next-day postage charge to £7.30 which is still subsidised and remains cheaper than our competitors.WHERE'S MY INVOICE? (March 2006)This year we have decided to exclude any printed invoices in parcels. We e-mail every customer with invoice details and feel an enclosed invoice unnecessary and a security risk in the unlikely event that your parcel gets lost. We can re e-mail an invoice if, for any reason, you didn't receive our original e-mail.POST CHRISTMAS 2005 (December 2005)We despatched every order and, more importantly, every line of every order, on the date promised. We almost killed ourselves this year but it was really great to have so much business and so many nice e-mails once everyone had started receiving their orders. We hardly had a minute to ourselves in December until Christmas day and we were up at 3am on many different days. Royal Mail Parcelforce performed much better this year, although the service at Christmas is never perfect. Our Stilton was outstanding quality - the best we've seen for a few years.A RECORD FOR US (November 2005)We were in The Times newspaper on Saturday and yesterday (27th November) we had 43,433 hits on our website. Scary! We placed an order today at the Paris market and they faxed us back 'do you really want to order these huge quantities - please confirm'!BETTER QUALITY PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHS (November 2005)We are busy improving the quality of our photographs. Remember many of our pictures were from a time when broadband wasn't known but now speeds improve monthly and it isn't so slow to view larger images.FAST WEBSITE (November 2005)Seems to have been a routing problem - 1st November.SLOW WEBSITE (October 2005)Our website is running a little slow at the moment. Our software engineers/hosting company are carrying out checks - 25th October.RICK STEIN / HENRIETTA GREEN (October 2005)Listed again in the new Food Heroes book by Rick Stein and on his internet site. Long standing listing in Henrietta Green's Food Guide and internet site.VACHERIN IN STOCK (September 2005)Vacherin in stock 20th September. A fantastic seasonal soft cheese which we will now stock until the new year.NEW FOIE GRAS (September 2005)Foie Gras in jars and tins.NEW ADDITIONAL URL (September 2005)We also have www.houseofcheese.biz as one of our websites.CHRISTMAS ORDERS (August 2005)Received our first Christmas orders. We'll aim to get our first one in July next year and we're thinking of offering a prize!SCOTTISH SUNDAY POST (August 2005)Some of you may have seen our mention in this newspaper of our cheese wedding cakes. We do of course send cheeses to Scotland. For non-mainland Scotland please e-mail us first.NEW PRODUCTS (July 2005)New silver plated cheese sets and - great for gifts. Also new bamboo wood cheeseboards/chopping boards in stylish two tone effect and great value. See our shop section 'Cheese Utensils'.SUNDAY TIMES (June 2005)Watch out for us in the 'Doors' section of The Sunday Times and don't forget it's Father's Day on Sunday 19th June. However, if you forget you can always send a belated Father's Day gift the week after!NEW PATES (May 2005)We have extended our range to include many new fish pates (suitable for vegetarians) which are really excellent and an ostrich pate, and a lamb pate.SITE FUNCTIONING FINE (24th April 2005)We have received no e-mails concerning any problems with our website. Internet orders continue to arrive daily.NEW WEBSITE (20th April 2005)Our original website of 1999/2000 has served us well but there were some navigation issues and java problems. Our new site has easier navigation and a secure server area dispenses with the need for javascript. We have deliberately kept our site quite simple and without large pictures. Watch out for regular news updates. We have tested our website extensively, but please e-mail if you experience any problems with it. |
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