We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Britton Welsh . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Britton below.

Alright, Britton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Becoming B Corp Certified

As the second generation of a family-owned company, I grew up at Beehive Cheese. I’ve watched my dad and uncle build a creamery from scratch, using second hand equipment with a total of about 100 years of cheesemaking experience between all the parts. Laughably, my dad and uncle only had 8 days of cheesemaking experience between the two of them. They took a giant leap and we’re still here 18 years later thriving.

It was through this experience that I learned the values of hard work, trust, and being wise with resources. At Beehive we’ve always believed in supporting the community, treating our employees with both compassion and respect, and having a good time making award-winning cheese.

The first generation wasn’t really interested in certifying as B Corp, even though much of what we were already doing was completely in line with the B Corp mission. When the second generation of leadership stepped up, we understood that consumers these days are wise to empty marketing messages and it’s not enough to just say you do these things–you have to show you do these things. We decided to formalize our values through certification.

I’m so proud of our certification. Most importantly, it gave us a way to measure and assess the culture we’d already built from the ground up and reveal blind spots. While we did well on our audit, we learned that there is still more we can be improving upon to truly use our business as a “force for good.”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So how did the creation of award winning, first of its kind rubbed rind cheese derive from a software guy and a real estate salesman? Well, they say in order to break the rules you need to know them first.

Determined to contribute to the local Utah foodie community, best friends and brothers-in-law Pat Ford and Tim Welsh sought help from Western Dairy Center, a leading cheese research institution of the western U.S. Seeing the determination of these friends, the cheese researchers quickly adopted them as their artisanal interns and mentored the novice cheesemakers with their expertise in cheese crafting. By the time the friends filled their vat for the first time, they had 8 days of cheesemaking experience between them.

Beehive–the name they adopted for their company– realized pretty quick that you can’t make great cheese without the best milk. They chose to partner with Gossner Foods, a third-generation family creamery, to source high quality local Jersey cow’s milk.

Tim had some coffee roasted by his brother in Colorado lying around. In a moment of flavor insight, he combined the rich, roasty coffee with bright lavender for an external rub he put on a wheel of their base cheddar  Promontory and thus Barely Buzzed was born! They took their new creation to the national American Cheese Society competition and turned heads. In its first year of creation, Barely Buzzed pulled ahead in its category and won Best Flavored Cheddar in America. Not wanting to disappoint, Barely Buzzed took first place another four times in the years to come.

This commitment and a willingness to try new things catapulted the cheesemakers to the national spotlight. Beehive continues to be among the nation’s leading creameries producing award-winning cheeses like our honey and salt rubbed Seahive, or Cajun spice rubbed Big John’s Cajun.

Our tiny creamery at the mouth of the Weber Canyon continues to grow. Pat and Tim have brought on the next generation of cheesemakers and staff to continue their vision and commitment to making friends through cheese every day.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Back in 2018 my cousin and I, Oliver Ford, took a cheese business incubator-type course in Wisconsin. We learned so much. One of the best things we implemented at Beehive Cheese was Traction. This is a system developed by Gino Wickman. He has a couple books. EOS and Traction were required reading for leadership. This book helped us understand how to run the business as we were growing past the point of just a few employees. It helped us all get on the same page when it came to our mission and vision, as well as gave us a system to track our success and address any issues the company would encounter through the years ahead.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As an artist of a consumable product, hands down the most rewarding aspect is making a product that brings people together to share joy. Fine cheese draws people together–that’s why there are so many cheeseboards served at parties and small gatherings. Cheese has kept my family working together, in (mostly) harmony, and we have three other family units that show up to Beehive to work together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beehivecheese.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beehivecheese/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeehiveCheese
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/beehivecheese
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BeehiveCheese/
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@beehivecheese

Image Credits
Jennifer Hardcastle (she did the picnic and cheeseboard creation photos) Katie Schall (she took all the other photos)