Good example here of how a small family run business can use social media to punch above its weight and get its voice heard.

Somerset based Wyke Farms faces having its award winning cheddar delisted by Supermarket Morrisons despite decent sales and popularity.

The family have turned to Facebook and are attracting a lot of support with hundreds of likes and comments.

The story feeds into the anger that many have with the way big supermarkets are seen to bully farmers throwing around their buying power.

Wyke Farms lost out on Morrisons distribution as it was not able to compete financially with bigger cheese companies in a recent tender.

“This is because we are a relatively small family business who tries to pay our farmers more for their milk,” Wyke said on Facebook:

Hello cheese lovers, we need your help:

Morrisons recently held a branded cheese tender and we could not afford to commit financially in the same way that big companies can. This is because we are a relatively small family business who tries to pay our farmers more for their milk.

As a result Morrisons will no longer be selling our cheese from mid September, even though 

it’s selling well and really popular. If you buy our cheese in Morrisons please sign our ‘Save our cheese!’ petition by posting ‘keep Wyke Farms in Morrisons’ to our wall and please encourage your friends
to do the same. Please also tell customer services in store if you wish to continue to buy your Wyke cheese in MorrisonTogether we can save Wyke Farms Cheddar!

A spokesman for Morrisons told the Grocer: “We took the decision to remove the Wyke Farms brand following an extensive category review of all our pre-packed cheese.

“Feedback from customers was that there was a lot of duplication in our range and we are consequently trying to simplify it. The decision was also formed by our desire to have more of an own-brand offering ahead of our category relaunch in September.