Whitestone Cheese

“It’s more fun selling cheese than shearing sheep.” Bob Berry founder of Oamaru-based Whitestone Cheese has no regrets about his move from one side of the farm fence to the other.

Starting out as a stock agent and auctioneer, he went into farming, and then diversified as the rural downturn in the late 1980s took hold. “The bottom fell out of farming, so we got into cheese as a diversification,” he says. “The wine industry was just starting to take off and we thought the specialist cheese market would go with it – and there weren’t many specialist cheeses around.”

From that small beginning in 1987 he now runs an enterprise that employs over 60 people. In 1998 the company expanded into a new purpose-built factory, ten times larger than the original converted garage.
The factory includes a viewing room, cheese deli and café and is a popular destination for locals and visitors alike.