It’s a funny old world. When we opened our first Syon shop in Isleworth, we wanted to be a cheese shop.

‘A cheese shop?’ said the locals, thinking we were bonkers. ‘Who wants a cheese shop?’ Some people wanted a launderette, or a shop for elderly ladies to buy their knickers.

But, we were a cheese shop, and a deli, and Tim did what he does with food. Which is always fabulous.

Then the bankers made off with all the money, the recession hit, and the supermarkets decided they wanted to be cheese shops, too. (On top of being clothes shops, butchers, music shops, electrical shops, opticians etc.)

The supermarkets can buy cheese at massively cheaper prices than us. And sell at slightly cheaper prices than us. So, that’s who moved your cheese.

We’ve also found that the many of the new, small producers we stocked were really just using small delis as a launch pad. Their stock can now be found in the supermarkets, too. It’s disappointing, but everyone has to make a living.

So, we are working on a way of producing our own small range of products. We’ll update when we’ve got some news.