Artisanal Brands Inc. – a marketer and distributor of specialty, artisanal and farmstead cheeses, and other specialty food products – plans to open a specialty cheese café in Long Island City, N.Y.
The company reported that all permits have been filed and construction will get under way for the first Artisanal Premium Cheese café at the entrance of the Falchi Building in Long Island City, set to open in spring.
Artisanal Brands also reported strong holiday sales, stating that e-commerce revenues have returned to pre-recession levels, according to Daniel W. Dowe, president and CEO. “While sales are always more robust during the holiday season, this year, Artisanal boxes were shipped to every state – even Hawaii and Alaska – as well as to Puerto Rico,” he said. “With partners like Frontgate, Allen Brothers, Sur La Table, Saks and Neiman-Marcus, our brand was visible online and in millions of catalogs these partners mailed.”
The company expanded its corporate gift program this year to include numerous Fortune 500 companies, including large commercial real estate firms and premium luxury travel agents that have yearlong gifting opportunities for client-customers, tenants and employee incentives programs.
“We are excited by our new partnerships with online wine merchants that are marketing our cheeses (using the Artisanal CheeseClock cheese & wine pairing methodology) to their wine consumers under a revenue sharing plan. In just one click, a wine consumer can purchase cheeses at our website that pair with the wines they just selected.”
