Cathedral City

Sales were partly fuelled by the increases in prices of dairy foods in particular but Cathedral City remains the biggest cheese brand.

The launch of Cathedral City Lighter also gave the brand a significant boost in 2007.

According to brand owner Dairy Crest, two years of recipe development, maturation and grading have produced a cheese that consumers rated better than any other reduced-fat cheese on the market (Product Perception December 2006).

Marketing director Paul Fraser says: “Cathedral City Lighter has built distribution very quickly, achieving 60% coverage during the first seven weeks of launch.

"Sales to date have exceeded all expectations as consumers have responded to the brand's marketing and promotional plan. Cathedral City Lighter's repeat purchase rates continue to increase, reaffirming the product quality.”

Dairy Crest invested £7m in the Cathedral City brand during 2007 helping it to achieve 40% household penetration.

The media spend included TV campaigns using the “See it, want it” theme plus a specific edit to promote the Mild variant, launched in 2006.

In addition, the brand launched through-the-line activity under the creative umbrella of The Big Cheese Tease. It spanned experiential, digital and pr and was designed to promote Cathedral City as the best cheese for cheese on toast.

The experiential activity focused on the new Lighter variant and used a cheese on toast van, which visited supermarkets, as well as events during British Cheese Week in October.

The initiative offered consumers hot cheese on toast, 20g samples and a money-off coupon.