MouCo Cheese slowly ferments growth

Fort Collins – After more than a decade in business, artisan cheese producer MouCo Cheese is becoming a full-blown player in the growing market for select gourmet products.

MouCo’s sales nearly doubled in 2011 to $486,000 after co-owners Robert Poland and Birgit Halbreiter ramped up distribution nationwide. That was good enough to put MouCo in the top spot on this year’s Mercury 100 among companies with revenues of $1.39 million or less.

MouCo specializes in soft, ripened cheeses, including brie, camembert and trufello, a camembert with black and white truffles in it.

The couple started the company in 1999, after Poland and Halbreiter…