**Cheese Is Having a Main Character Moment**

Cheese is no longer the quiet kid in the dairy aisle.

Lactalis UK & Ireland just launched Leerdammer Mini Cubes into Morrisons, leaning hard into cheese snacking. Smart timing. Cheese snacking value sales are up 13.3% year on year, and the snacking and processed segment is now the fourth-biggest in cheese, according to Circana.

Zoom out to the US and cottage cheese is on a tear. Sales topped $2bn in 2025, up 19.2% in dollars and 13.9% in volume. Private label is riding the wave too, hitting $673m, up 10% in value and 7% in units.

Startups smell blood in the water. UK brand All Things sold 1 million pots in four months after entering cottage cheese in January. It quickly became the best-selling cottage cheese SKU on Ocado. Now it is investing in Yester Farm Dairies to upgrade machinery and add new lines, aiming to double capacity by year end. In the US, Good Culture secured backing from L Catterton in a deal reportedly valuing the business at more than $500m to fuel its scale-up.

Big dairy is not sitting still. Bel North America wants to double the division’s size in five years, powered by distribution, foodservice and M&A. Bel also put $350m into expanding its Babybel factory in South Dakota amid double-digit growth for Babybel and Boursin.

Why it matters. Protein and portability have turned cheese into a snack, not just a sandwich filler. The real story is capacity. Brands are scrambling to add lines and factories because demand is already here. When both private label and premium players are growing, you are not looking at a fad. You are looking at a category reset.