A small Macclesfield cheese company has seen a huge surge in British support from new customers and partners, off-setting Brexit trade losses.

The Cheshire Cheese Company had to terminate exporting to the EU and Canada in recent months.

This was due to increased trade costs following the UK leaving the European Union at the start of 2021.

However, a new nationwide deal with Pladis - the owners of Jacob's Crackers - have offered the Macclesfield company a post-Brexit boost.

A trio of limited edition Mini Cheddar flavours, themed on the three British nations, features produce from the business located on Sutton's Hawkshead Quarry Farm.

Their Macc-born Co-founder Simon Spurrell (53), said: "The Pladis arrangement is a bit like the first Rocky movie, where we got picked from obscurity to meet the champion.

"They were looking for flavour representatives for England, Scotland and Wales in Cheese and they came across us.

"They said we seemed to be the noisiest cheese company out there, with a large following and a fantastic product."

Through a string of recent high profile media appearances, where Mr Spurrell has highlighted the issue with the cost of export health certificates on British businesses, both Brexiteers and Remainers have supported the business in droves.

Export health certificates are an official document attached to any foodstuff being imported to a country, required as part of the free trade deal. The cost is a fixed price, and does not scale up or down for the amount of a product purchased.

This makes it infeasible for a British business to sell to customers in the EU, as the value of one cheese product is smaller than the cost of an EHC certificate.

The company has even had to scale down their UK customer base. This is because Northern Ireland would require an export health certificate, with the border being on the mainland.

"The net loss of us losing the EU market we calculated was a net loss of £180,000, which we directly attributed to sales in the EU," he added.

"But then at the start of this year, we had a massive surge in a Buy British Rhetoric.

"Weirdly, we've ended up with a 900% increase in January and February on the same period last year. And that's all from the UK because we've had to sever ties with the EU and Canada."

The Macclesfield businessman has even attracted the attention of the government.

In incredible circumstances, he was invited to a last-minute video meeting with high-ranking politicians to discuss issues with exporting to the EU, while he was driving on Macclesfield's remote Cat and Fiddle Road.

"We do still sell to the USA," Simon said.

"We would love to expand there, but even then the cost just to export the goods has increased from £14 to £25.

"Unfortunately, the UK government told me that they couldn't do anything about it.

"We've had to completely readjust how we actually trade. And things like the Pladis-Jacob's association is fantastic to fill that."

And the new product is already flying off the shelves. A visit to a Macclesfield Tesco today found the new product had already sold out.

You can purchase The Cheshire Cheese Company collaboration with Jacob's Mini Cheddars at Tesco, with other supermarkets to follow.

The Cheshire Cheese Company will also launch a new Mini Cheddars-themed Posh Ploughmans Cheese with Shallots, to honour their new partnership.

It can be purchased - along with a breadth of award-winning cheeses - from their website. website.

Their Twitter account, which has almost 20,000 followers is @1CheshireCheese.