Cheese is still big business with Swiss market leaders Emmi. The just-announced 2007 figures show that 33% of net turnover is earned by the sector.

But this represents an increase on the year of only 3.7% while earnings from yogurts, dairy drinks and desserts soared by 13.5% to CHF 537,000 (about €333,000) or 21.5% of total turnover. Major factors in this success were soaring sales of the relatively new Caffe Latte dairy drinks including espresso, macchiato and cappuccino varieties and also of Emmi’s “Swiss Muesli” dairy snack.

Overall 2007 turnover is up 7.1% but the dairy has already announced measures aimed at improving its 1.5-1.7% profit from these earnings. Some CHF 10 million (€6.2m) is to be spent this year in cost cutting, mainly through reducing product range and optimising advertising and marketing, says the firm. In 2009 another CHF 10m will be invested for the same reason. No cuts will be made in the export business that increased its turnover by 15.3% in 2007.