A fifteen year journey
In 2008, Monica Senna Salerno & Jenny Oldham began making cheese together in their home kitchens. With their backgrounds in science and insatiable curiosity they experimented with recipes, using their friends and workmates as guinea pigs. Gradually, they narrowed in on goat milk as the base for their cheeses, liking the taste, nutrition and consistency it offered.
The popularity of their cheeses grew so much they made the big decision to go to commercial level in 2010, setting up a boutique business on the Ruakura Campus in Hamilton.
Establishing supply links with goat farmers proved very fruitful, and an eventual partnership with Rupert Soar and his farming and commercial networks allowed for such a consistent supply of quality milk that they decided to bottle the milk itself and sell that as well.
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Rupert brought over 30 years of experience in the dairy industry to the enterprise and was able to build the team’s technical and quality acumen, which enabled Cilantro to expand still further.
With Suli Laomahei now at the helm as the factory operations manager, Cilantro has been consolidating its product range and building its customer base through the North Island.
Cilantro is now MPI certified for export, Halal certified and available for contract manufacturing, including organic.
Opening Hours
Our factory runs on normal business hours, however, we are only open for pick-ups on Wednesdays.
