The rest of the products in the company’s portfolio such as milk and yogurt are imported. With its yellow cheese brand, Das Kaskaval, Mueller entered the cheese market dominated by Germany’s Hochland and by Delaco Distribution in Romania.
“We’re aiming for a 3% share of the cheese market by yearend and are considering launching other products, too, but we’ll first wait and see how well it does,” said Tzafrir Granat, who has been running Mueller’s operations in Romania since early 2011. He had previously been marketing manager with the same company.
Mueller entered the dairy market in Romania via a joint venture with Central Bottling Company (CBC), shareholder of Coca-Cola Israel and of the Tuborg beer producer in Romania. The company posted RON51.4 million revenue and about RON11 million loss in 2013. Losses started to go down in 2012, after completion of a process meant to improve efficiency.
The company officials said they had been interested in selling Romanian-made products since they first started in the country but the crisis caused them to shelve the plans. With the entry on the cheese market with the yellow cheese brand made in a facility of “a major producer in NE Romania,” the company is again considering buying a local player.
A decision on whether to continue partnerships with local producers or buy one of them will be made as the company and its Romanian-made product portfolio develop, Granat said.
Hochland officials have recently said that total cheese consumption in Romania stands at only 5 kilos per capita, which includes sales in open-air markets and homemade cheese. ZF’s calculations show cheese consumption amounts to about 100,000 tons a year in Romania.
“This is the first Mueller brand made in Romania, the first ever made outside Germany. Entry on the cheese market is a natural step for a dairy industry company (…),” said Laura Simionescu, brand manager of Mueller Dairy.
“Mueller wanted to a have a Romanian–made product ever since entering this market but the crisis came and plans did not materialize.”
The company worked two years on its new cheese brand, she said, adding that in the last few years yellow cheese replaced white cheese as the favorite type of cheese of Romanian consumers, partly because of the entry of many companies on this segment.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)