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For Artisan & SME

What you need to do next to grow.

Farm-based, artisan, family and scaling producers

Farm-based, artisan, family and scaling producers. The provenance and premium analysis, the partners who work at your scale, the forums, and a plain route from where you are now to the next stage.

Where are you now?Search the Partner Directory

What matters now

Three things worth your attention.

Market

Cheddar rises 9% in a month and still trails the milk price

What changed
Mild Cheddar gained £270 a tonne in September, more than any other product AHDB tracks, and cheese is back above butter and powder at the factory gate.
Why it matters
The October milk price rises were announced weeks before that figure was published, and AHDB says Cheddar prices remain too low to cover them.
What to watch
Whether November milk price announcements move again before the next AHDB wholesale assessment, and whether contract cheese prices follow the spot trades.

Members · Analysis · 29 September 2026

Regulation

The invoice arrives this autumn. Nobody can tell you what it says.

What changed
Year-two extended producer responsibility is priced on recyclability, and the confirmed fees are not published until November.
Why it matters
Packaging with missing recyclability data is rated red by default, so 100 tonnes rated red for want of an assessment costs £13,000 more than the same tonnage rated green.
What to watch
PackUK's confirmed year-two fees and the first Notice of Liability, both due by the end of November.

Members · Analysis · 22 September 2026

News

ICDA 2026: the retail and foodservice winners at a glance

What changed
Booths and Waitrose & Partners take the supreme retail trophies while Heler Foods doubles up in the foodservice awards
Why it matters
Waitrose & Partners dominated the 2026 retail titles with six categories, while Booths claimed Supreme Cheese Retailer.

News · 26 June 2026

Grow my dairy business

Where are you now?

Eight stages from starting out to looking for investment. Pick yours and see what to work through next, and which insight, partners, recognition and rooms are relevant. Not a sales funnel: GROW is one option among several.

Where are you now? Pick your stage

Intelligence

Provenance, premium and scaling.

Independent pieces on PDO (protected designation of origin) and provenance, artisan scaling, brand and the counter. Filter by topic.

Members · Analysis · 10 min read

Cheddar rises 9% in a month and still trails the milk price

Mild Cheddar rose 9% in September, taking a litre made into Cheddar and whey to 39.08 pence and putting cheese back above butter and powder at the factory gate, but the October milk price rises were announced weeks before that figure was published, and AHDB says Cheddar prices remain too low to cover them.

29 September 2026

Members · Analysis · 7 min read

The invoice arrives this autumn. Nobody can tell you what it says.

The most expensive packaging decision available to a mid-sized processor this year is not a material decision at all: packaging with missing recyclability data is rated red, so 100 tonnes rated red by default rather than by design costs £13,000 more than the same tonnage rated green — larger than the gap between a realistic pack mix and a perfect one.

22 September 2026

Close-up of a screen showing volatile red and green financial trend lines

Members · Analysis · 4 min read

2026 the volatility year

2026 will not be the recovery year the sector expected but the year that resets it, splitting shoppers into clearer tiers and leaving mainstream Cheddar the most exposed.

27 April 2026

Brief · 2 min read

The three numbers in your packaging budget are last year's

Year-two EPR resets the rate and starts charging on recyclability, so the number worth working out this month is not tonnage times rate but the red, amber and green split — and how much of the red is red only because an assessment was never submitted.

21 September 2026

Three men holding a trophy and rosette at the Cheese Dairy Deli Expo awards backdrop

News · 2 min read

ICDA 2026: the retail and foodservice winners at a glance

Waitrose & Partners dominated the 2026 retail titles with six categories, while Booths claimed Supreme Cheese Retailer.

26 June 2026

Chunks of crumbled white feta cheese on a blue-grey plate

Members · Analysis · 3 min read

FETA PDO: provenance the buyer can verify

With speciality cheese outgrowing the category and feta supply tightening, buyers should secure genuine PDO product early rather than treat it as a commodity.

19 June 2026

Wheels of cheese maturing on wooden shelves in a stone-walled ageing cellar

Members · Analysis · 3 min read

The artisan advantage

Farmhouse and artisan cheesemakers punch far above their tonnage, defining reputation and premium value the wider dairy sector should treat as strategic.

19 June 2026

Seated conference delegates applauding on red and gold banquet chairs

News · 3 min read

The appetite was always there: inside the first Dairy Connect Ireland event

Irish dairy has a genuine gap for dedicated commercial networking, and the first Dairy Connect Ireland event proved the appetite for it.

20 April 2026

Dairy Forum Ireland: a platform for a new era of Irish dairy

News · 4 min read

Dairy Forum Ireland: a platform for a new era of Irish dairy

Dairy Forum Ireland is positioned to give Irish producers the visibility, buyer access and export readiness needed to compete internationally.

11 February 2026

Cottage cheese piled on rye crispbread crackers topped with pea shoots on a wooden board

Members · Analysis · 6 min read

Cottage cheese: from trend to transformation

With volume up 29.4% and value up 26.2%, cottage cheese offers UK retailers, foodservice operators and artisan producers a rare simultaneous growth opportunity.

5 November 2025

Touchscreen pallet-scanning terminal and label printer on a packing line

News · 4 min read

Optimising dairy packaging for high-volume periods

Centralising packing-line control through one master terminal and adding vision inspection cuts costly manual data errors when high demand strains dairy production lines.

2 September 2025

WZ Packaging exhibition stand promoting flexible packaging at a trade show hall

News · 3 min read

WZ Packaging: leading the way in sustainable dairy packaging with the Enviro Ultra-Laminates range

WZ Packaging's Enviro Ultra-Laminates range shows dairy packaging can reduce material and improve recyclability without sacrificing barrier protection.

1 July 2025

All Provenance & Premium analysis →

Expertise

Partners who work at artisan and SME scale.

From the Dairy Connect Partner Directory, matched on expertise. Ordered by match, then by profile completeness, then alphabetically. Never by payment.

No Partner Directory listing matches your area yet.

Search the Partner Directory

Events

Is this worth your time?

Cork · 3 & 4 March 2027

Dairy Forum Ireland

Relevant to

Technical & Processing, Leadership & Strategy, Commercial & Sales, Artisan & SME

Why attend

Twelve speakers follow milk from the farm to the market, each session closing on a chaired industry challenge. Opens with an evening of cheese and whiskey.

View programmeWho’s it for?Get your free ticket

GROW by Dairy Connect

When growth needs diagnosing, not just marketing.

GROW is one route among several on this page, not the destination. Where your business is scaling faster than its margin, capacity or compliance, the fact-finding workshop finds the constraint that actually binds.

GROW

Market readiness

Test whether the product, pricing, packaging, capacity and commercial model are ready for the opportunity the business wants to pursue.

GROW

Retail listing consultancy

Strengthen the buyer proposition, pricing story and presentation while ensuring the business is operationally and technically prepared to win, and to service, a listing.

GROW

Compliance and technical readiness

Identify gaps in specifications, quality systems, traceability, accreditation, claims, labelling and buyer requirements before they become barriers.

How GROW works

Not quite your role?

Nine roles, each with its own route. Or tell us what you are trying to solve and we will point you to the right people.

Explore by roleSpeak to the team