In 2000, Leprino Foods became one of only a handful of U.S. dairy suppliers to expand its manufacturing footprint to another continent when it formed a joint venture with Glanbia Plc to serve Europe. The joint venture owns and operates two facilities in the United Kingdom — one in Llangefni, Wales, and one in Magheralin, Northern Ireland — and markets products under the Glanbia Cheese name.
“We each bring unique capabilities to the partnership,” says Jensen. “Glanbia brings knowledge of the European market and the European milk supply, and Leprino Foods brings state-of-the-art mozzarella production expertise.”
International sales now account for nearly 7% of Leprino Foods’ total cheese sales and almost 60% of its whey sales.
With the “dramatic” expansion of its international presence, “we restructured our entire business development organization in order to meet the growth and complexity of international markets,” says Kevin Burke, senior vice president of global business development. “We want to ensure we take a more comprehensive view of how international sales impact our entire operation and better integrate our international efforts into everything we do.”
Greeley to Singapore
While Leprino Foods has a long history in world markets, two recent developments put the exclamation point on its export success. In August, the company opened its first Asian Business Center in Singapore. And in November, it opens a $200 million cheese and dairy ingredient plant in Greeley, Colo. Besides giving the company a larger physical presence in Asia, the 6,000-square-foot business center contains the company’s third Innovation Studio — a facility that assists customers in identifying and developing products tailored to the tastes and food trends of the region. (Leprino Foods also operates an Innovation Studio in Denver and in the UK as part of its joint venture with Glanbia).
The center is staffed by sales and customer support personnel and business development experts, including culinary professionals. It builds on Leprino Foods’ already significant presence in the region that seeks to capitalize on rising dairy demand in the Asia-Pacific market.
“Leprino Foods has made strategic and focused efforts to build business in China and the Southeast Asian theater for mozzarella,” says Beck. “The company has taken a very creative and innovative positioning as ‘supplier of choice’ to a major pizza chain in Australia, working with them on creating a marketing platform that would meet Australian consumers’ desire for pizza that satisfied cravings for indulgence without negative connotations of weight gain.”
Leprino Foods used its mozzarella expertise to develop a low-fat cheese that met all of the chain’s desired taste, composition and melt characteristics. The product was so well received that last year, the pizza company converted its entire market territory to the low-fat cheese.
And it’s not just in Singapore in which the company has boots on the ground. It has in-country staff in China and a robust distributor network in China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia and other countries.
Cheese exports are shipped primarily from plants in California. Whey and other dairy ingredients are shipped from any of 10 U.S. facilities in seven states. The new Greeley facility will boost volume and provide more supply options. The Greeley plant will go live in stages, with Phase 1 set to open Nov. 1 and Phase 2 scheduled for completion in late 2012. Phase 3’s completion date has yet to be determined. Phase 1 will make non-fat dry milk. Phases 2 and 3 will produce cheese, whey and dairy ingredient products.
“As demand increases internationally, the addition of the Greeley production facility will enable us to meet our domestic demand for cheese while we increase shipments overseas from our California facilities,” says Jensen.
