Clifford Chance (CC) and Eversheds have landed roles on an unusual deal that has seen Dairy Crest protect its pension fund with maturing cheese.

The UK dairy company has granted a floating charge of £60m worth of cheddar cheese to the trustee of its pension fund, in what is thought to be the first deal of its kind involving cheese. Dairy Crest's cheese stock was valued at £150m at the end of March. 

CC is advising trustees of the fund with a team including finance partner Karen Hodson, pensions partner Clare Hoxey and associate Katie Hicks.

Eversheds is acting for Dairy Crest with a team comprising banking partner David Boyd, with principal associate Hugh Gittins advising on pension law aspects.

Boyd said: "It's a new and novel deal to work on – it is not every day that assets like maturing cheese are used to provide security to a pension fund.

"Ensuring that there was an adequate value of maturing cheese subject to the floating charge to give the trustee confidence that on an insolvency it could realise the agreed amount from any enforcement, while achieving sufficient flexibility for the company to run its cheese business without material restriction, was the biggest complexity involved in the deal."

In a similar transaction in 2010, Linklaters and Slaughter and May advised on a deal that saw drinks company Diageo use maturing whisky to fill its pensions deficit.