Love Cheese acquired in MBO deal advised by Harrowells

A well-known York city centre gourmet food and wine retailer and tourist destination has been acquired in a management buy out (MBO), advised by the corporate team at Harrowells.

Love Cheese, Gillygate, which has customers throughout the UK, has been bought by its manager, Jordan Thomson (pictured left), in a deal advised by a partner in Harrowells’ corporate team, Matthew Rowley. The acquisition includes taking over the lease, acquiring the Love Cheese stock and goodwill.

The retailer, which stocks a wide range of local and continental cheeses and wines as well as a ‘secret garden’ café, known as the Speakcheesey overlooking York Minster and serving light meals, has four other staff and a six figure annual turnover.

A Covid pandemic-enforced career change led Jordan Thomson to join Love Cheese in 2020 and he was soon helping to manage the shop after being asked by then owners, Harry and Phoebe Baines, to rebrand the café into the Speakcheesey.

He says: “Harry and Phoebe owned Love Cheese for around eight years and did a fantastic job in developing the businesses into a popular part of York’s retail, hospitality and tourism offer. We are very popular with local people and with tourists from all over the world who visit us to try our renowned triple cheese toastie. A visitor from Brazil came in for one last week.

“Matthew Rowley was very helpful and approachable. He guided me through the whole process with a combination of serious legal and business advice and lighthearted humour which I really appreciated as transactions of this kind can be stressful.”

As well as being a shop and café, Love Cheese sells around 100 tiered cheese wedding cakes a year – an area Jordan wants to expand – and has 7,000 UK-wide subscribers who receive regular cheese and wine boxes delivered to their door as well as supporting around 1,000 cheese and wine tasting events for businesses throughout the UK.

Jordan Thomson says he may take on more staff for the business festive period and plans to update parts of Love Cheese’s product offer in 2023

Matthew Rowley says: “Love Cheese has built up an important reputation with a national customer case which crosses York’s retail, tourism and hospitality sectors. It has been a pleasure to support Jordan’s management buy out and I’m sure he will do a great job in developing the business.”

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This deal has received media coverage in The Business Desk, Yorkshire Business Insider, Yorkshire Post, York Mix and York Press.