Articles by James Carper

Chicago retailer Marshall Field famously said, “Give the lady what she wants.” A related axiom is “The customer is always right.” Here’s more good business advice: “Don’t insult your customers” and “Play it straight with consumers.”

Maryland's Kilby family has been farming for 100 years. To position itself for success into the next century, it built a dairy processing plant that bottles milk and churns ice cream under the name Kilby Cream.

I’m throwing a virtual ball in honor of the outgoing president of the International Dairy Foods Association and everyone’s invited.

The Wells Enterprises’ ice cream plant runs 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Because of this heavy-duty schedule, once a year the maintenance crew takes apart and rebuilds each piece of equipment.

Retail sales of branded butter showed gains on private label butter in the last year. Though dollar sales of private label butter increased 3.4%, unit sales decreased 1.3%, suggesting that retailers raised prices.

Ice cream is back. Retail sales in the last year rose 6% and production rose 3.7% in 2015 from 2014 levels (the latest years available).

In searching for signs of life in the fluid milk category, one can find a pulse. Sales of whole milk rose 4.1% from 2014 to 2015. Sales also increased for 1% milk (4.6%), whole flavored milk (6.4%), other flavored milk (1.3%) and buttermilk (5.2%). These segments represent opportunities for fluid milk processors.

Any dairy farmer can attest that contented cows give better milk. But how satisfied are employees of dairy processing firms? Are they happy where they are working, or are they job hopping?

It’s easy to find creativity in dairy processing. Look at the people involved in formulating, processing, packaging and marketing of dairy foods and beverages. Their innovations meet consumers’ calls for convenience and new flavors.

Dairies typically apply heat to raw milk. They use high-temperature/short time, higher-heat/shorter time or ultra-high temperature pasteurization. There are alternatives to heat-based pasteurization, such as applying high pressure or using UV light.