FROM MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS TO… THE GOORMANS’ FLYING CHEESE BRIGADE!
Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet Daniel and Helen Goormans from Antwerp, Belgium. Their Flying Cheese Brigade stall, which you’ll find at the Moycullen market on Fridays, Limerick Milk Market on Saturdays, Killaloe farmers’ market on Sundays and Oranmore market on Thursdays, recently won our ‘Best Market Stall Competition’. So we thought it would be nice to catch up with the pair and find out just what it is that makes them so darn good at what they do.
“It all started with mare’s milk,” Daniel tells us proudly. “We used to sell mare’s milk at the milk market in Limerick. There was a good bit of interest just because it was a novelty. We must say we had a lot of fun and met a lot of different people. We were interviewed and even invited to go on television and all these kind of things. But we did not make any profits! So we started to look around for a niche in the market. Because of our love for cheese and wine the decision was made very quickly and we started our cheese stall called the Flying Cheese Brigade – because we both love Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”
Running the stall is not just a business for Daniel and Helen, it’s an incredibly rewarding way of plugging into a whole social network. Helen explains that contact with customers is the single most gratifying aspect of running the stall. “We have so many people who buy from us for many years, that’s how we get to know them.” Bit by bit the pair have built up relationships with their customers that go way beyond a simple sell-purchase transaction. “We have our weekly chat. We see the young women pregnant, having their first babies, kids growing up and becoming young adults. To us it is a big part of our social life.”
One young chap became a particular pal a few years back, recalls Daniel with amusement. “We had a young kid at the stall. He was about four years old and his parents were not big into food. So one day they came up to the stall and we gave them samples of our mildest cheeses. They loved it, but the young lad insisted on trying a huge very old gouda – two-and-a-half years old! This cheese is very strong, salty, crumbly. Let’s say it’s for the connoisseur! He absolutely loved it. That family still comes to the stall buying their cheeses every week and in the mean time the grown up boy still goes for the strongest blues, cheddars and all these kind of things.”
Helen is quick to mention another kid who is “always asking for ‘John Deere’ cheese – he means the green pesto cheese we sell to put on his pizzas. We know what kind of tractor his dad rides. Daniel is called ‘The Cheese Man’ and kids love his shoes – he always wears shoes with a cow printed on!”
So… the million dollar question: what’s the secret of The Flying Cheese Brigade’s success? “One of the most important things,” says Daniel, “is having fun with what you do. When the motivation is gone, forget about it! People can feel that you have to sell your products in a convincing way.” This involves a lot more than mere amateur enthusiasm however. Listen up, folks, here’s a couple of tips from the masters: “You have to know your products. Another very important thing is the presentation of your stall. People buy with their eyes. In the case of food give them samples. It gives you the opportunity to talk about your products!”
But it’s not all glamour and fun. When we ask Helen what the toughest part of the job is, she answers without hesitation: “The loading and unloading of all the stuff. The washing up and cleaning after a day of hard work. The early hours in the winter, especially when we had minus 15°C here in Clare!!!” So how do you guys keep up the energy and enthusiasm levels year in year out? The secret, says Helen, is to keep a hands-on approach. “We are just the two of us. We don’t work with staff so we know exactly what’s going on the stall. We talk a lot about it during our days off and travel on a regular base to France and Italy always on the lookout for new things. It is a nice way to live your life, although it’s hard work and early hours. But we love what we are doing!”
One final question before we let our friends get back to work. What’s your sense of current market conditions? How badly is the recession hitting traders out there? Daniel’s answer is refreshingly upbeat. “To be honest, we are doing quite well. The smaller markets are down a good bit but the big markets like Galway and Limerick are still very good. We think the recession has hit Ireland hard but on the other hand Irish people are very flexible and they are adapted to their new lifestyle now. So we feel everything is falling back into place. It will take a good bit of time but slowly we’ll get there.”
Amen!
