SUTTONS BAY, MICH. -- The “For Sale” sign only had been posted for a short time outside of Leelanau Cheese’s property before the shop’s phone began ringing with calls from customers frantic to place orders, fearful this might be their last chance to stock up on the company’s exquisite cheeses.
Given Leelanau Cheese’s renown, the panic is somewhat understandable -- albeit not necessary for the time being. The company is indeed selling its nearly nine-acre property in Suttons Bay, with plans to close up shop on the business’ 25-year-long tenure once a buyer has been found.
Until the property sells, though, the cheesemaking will continue.
John and Anne Hoyt, the husband-and-wife cheesemakers who founded and run Leelanau Cheese, are among Northwest Lower Michigan’s most celebrated specialty food artisans. Over more than two decades, the pair has developed a cult-like following for their award-winning raclette cheeses and French-style fromage blanc spreads.
But after 25 years of working in a labor-intensive craft while facing continued challenges with staffing workers and sourcing local dairy, the Hoyts are ready to hang up their aprons and move on.
The cheese company itself currently is not for sale, but “if the right people came along” the couple would consider selling the business and helping train the new owners, said owner Anne Hoyt.
In the meantime, adoring customers don’t need to be alarmed. Although production has been scaled back, Leelanau Cheese will continue to make and sell its fine cheeses through late fall of 2020, with plans to reopen for seasonal operations in April 2021 if a buyer hasn’t yet stepped forward.
“There’s no use to hoard [the cheese] like people were hoarding toilet paper in the pandemic,” Hoyt said, laughing. “That’s not fair to the next customer. I would like to see people relax and buy what they need.”
Hoyt, originally from France, and her Michigan-born husband, John Hoyt, have dedicated their shared life to cheese since the couple first met in Switzerland in the mid-1980′s, where John had moved to study cheesemaking. The couple eventually returned to Michigan, founding Leelanau Cheese in the little Up North burg of Omena in 1995.
For years the company enjoyed an enthusiastic following, producing roughly 30,000 pounds of cheese each year at its peak. So popular were these cheeses that at one point, after snagging top honors at an international competition, Leelanau Cheese was forced to institute a temporary two-wedge limit per customer.
But finding and maintaining skilled staff to help run the business has long been a problem for the company, Hoyt said. And the shuttering of local dairy farms in recent years, echoing a trend happening across the Midwest, has only added more stress to running a small specialty business.
As a result of those ongoing issues, Hoyt said Leelanau Cheese’s decision to close up shop has been several years in the making -- and that it has nothing to do with the current coronavirus crisis.
“I think I’m over the 70-hour weeks. I’m ready to slow down,” she said. “Physically, it’s getting really hard on us. You cannot do really physical work for the rest of your life.”
Hoyt said she’s planning on enjoying the remaining time she and John have at Leelanau Cheese, though she knows she’ll be sad when they finally do say goodbye to the company they put so much effort into for so long.
“I know the day it happens, I’m going to cry. I have cried just talking about it,” she said. “It’s our baby."
“We created this business, my husband and I. But everything has an end.”
More at leelanaucheese.com and Facebook.com/leelanaucheese.
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