50 years of Meyer Cheese and building the next 50.

From a side hustle in the family cellar to award-winning dairy, Miel Meyer on heritage, craft, and what's churning for the next half century.​

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It started with a boy and a block of cheese. When Miel Meyer's father was young, his mother would send him to the local shop to fetch cheese for the family. That simple errand, the walk, the shop, the block wrapped and carried home left something lasting in him. Coupled with a childhood spent watching the local monastery make cheese from milk supplied by their own farm, a seed was planted that would take decades to fully bloom.​

By the 1970s, that seed had become a side hustle. A trained engineer working for Philips, Miel's father missed working with his hands. So he started making cheese in the evenings and on weekends, selling it from the cellar of the family home. His wife, a teacher, kept the household steady while he found his footing. The first cheese was sold on the books in 1976, and that's the year Meyer Cheese was officially born. Miel arrived eight years later, born into a world already shaped by cheese. ​

Fifty years on, that engineering instinct his father brought to the bench hasn't gone anywhere. Now retired for two decades, Meyer still joins his son for lunch most days and still makes his feelings known when a cheese falls short. "He'll let me know when a cheese is bad" Miel says with a smile. That perfectionism, that quiet insistence on doing it properly regardless of scale, remains the standard Meyer Cheese is built on.​

And right now, that standard is being applied to something close to the family's heart. Meyer Cheese turns 50 this year, and Miel's goal for the milestone is the launch of a secret new whipped dairy product. A recipe his father has made at the end of every season for Miel's entire life. The story behind it is pure Meyer, when his mother first visited his father's family home as a teenager, she fell in love with this dairy product before she fell in love with her future husband. ​

The launch is planned for October, as part of the opening of a new 800 square metre factory extension. The tagline Meyer Cheese is running with says it all: Est 1976 - 50 years. Building the next fifty.​

That forward momentum runs through everything the business is doing. 2026 will also see the introduction of new formats designed to meet changing consumer needs for convenience and added value. Alongside that, Meyer Cheese is continuing their commitment to something increasingly rare: a completely preservative-free product line. No flavour numbers. No shortcuts. Clean labels that reflect how the Meyer Cheese products have always been made.​

In a market where authenticity is increasingly easy to fake, Meyer Cheese is leaning into the real thing, farm visits, community engagement, and paddock-to-plate storytelling. Real experiences that no algorithm can manufacture.​

As for what comes next beyond October? Meyer Cheese will enter its full range at the World Cheese Awards later this year. No New Zealand company has ever taken the top spot across more than four thousand entries.​

And Miel’s favourite cheese dish? Garlic and chives, in a grilled cheese sandwich. Every time.​

Meyer Cheese is the feature of this Beany Business Spotlight. Celebrating the businesses that know where they've come from and exactly where they're going.​

Meyer Cheese has been working with Beany to take control of their financial future. With Beany's support, and in particular that of senior accountant Natalie, Miel has been able to step back from the day-to-day of the accounts and focus on what matters most: building the new factory, developing new products, and planning for the next 50 years. For the first time in decades, Meyer Cheese is looking forward, forecasting P&Ls and budgets with confidence rather than backward.​

Thanks for your time, and for sharing your story - here’s to more awards and the next half century.​