Beecher's Handmade Cheese - Founding and History

Founding and History

Before founding Beecher's, Dammeier had never made cheese, and had little direct knowledge of the cheese making business. His self-described "passion" for cheese began during his childhood in Tacoma, Washington, where his family always kept a cheese board piled high with local cheeses. Raised in a family business involving printing and food manufacturing, he decided to open a cheese business after his family sold the printing company. He named it for his great-grandfather, Beecher McKenzie. Dammeier also owns the Seattle-based specialty grocer Pasta & Co. and is a major investor in Pyramid Breweries, Inc.; other members of his family have stakes in Pyramid as well. Dammeier also founded Bennett's Pure Food Bistro on nearby Mercer Island, and the food truck Maximus/Minimus, both of which carry many dishes prepared with Beecher's products. In 2003, Dammeier opened Beecher's in Seattle's Pike Place Market when a rare large retail location became available in the market after the nursery Molbak's closed its Market location and moved to its current Woodinville, Washington property.

After taking a cheese making course at Washington State University, Dammeier decided he needed to hire someone to work with him as chief cheesemaker. He hired Brad Sinko, a microbiologist, who previously had managed his family cheese business of Bandon Cheese in Oregon, before it was acquired by the Tillamook County Creamery Association. According to Dammeier, the artisanal cheese market was underrepresented in Seattle and Washington, and he opened his business in part to encourage more cheese business to grow in the region. In 2000, Washington had nine licensed cheesemakers; this expanded to twenty-eight by 2007. Dammeier compared the growth he expects in artisan cheese to the United States' recent growth in sales of specialty beers:

"If you said the word 'Porter' 20 years ago, no one in the U.S. would have had any idea you were talking about beer. Twenty years from now, people will know what a washed rind is."

Thanks to financing from Dammeier's other business ventures, Beecher's had the ability to build up their operations slowly, absorbing the costs of capitalization of the business while experimenting with their cheeses, including the time to age them. "The first vat," remarked Dammeier, "we threw away. The second vat was really good." As their work progressed Sinko would adjust the formulas of their cheese processing, the cultures, and the enzymes involved, and increased the average aging time for their Flagship brand to 18 months. However, they only publicly claim 12 months of aging. In their first year of operation, Beecher's had no aged product of their own to sell, instead building up an inventory of 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg) of cheese. During that same time, their primary sales were of fresh cheese curds.