Find your niche and fill it

The challenge to make a profit in these very tough dairy conditions is causing companies to look at different sectors and re-examine their product lineup. One such company is the Bel Group, whose Portuguese arm has decided to relaunch its Terra Nostra brand in the Azores with new branding and a new UHT product for the Portuguese market. Bel is counting on its marketing campaign and the new look for the brand to invigorate sales, and launched the milk on São Miguel in the Azores last week. It is a project that is several years in the making, but is expected to reach beyond Portugal’s borders to international markets eventually.

Like Austria’s hay milk, the Azores offers a point of difference for cows and the resulting dairy products – out on the grass 365 days a year, the cows are kept using best practices in animal production and hygiene. The idea is that consumers, who are becoming ever more vigilant in the area of sustainability and where dairy comes from, will pay more than the usual eurocents for the milk. I have to say, if I were a cow, I’d like to live on the sunny hills that make up the beautiful island of São Miguel.

In Austria, focusing on a point of difference has shown results. Sales of hay milk products in the Austrian food trade increased last year by 3.5% to more than €109 million and 42,000, the sales organisation Arge Heumilch recently announced, while the overall market saw a sales drop of 2% in the country. So, there is precedent, and it seems that the way forward is to find a point of difference for your product and make it a selling point. Dairy not only has to work harder, it has to work smarter to find profit in these trying times. Hay milk and 365 days of grass from happy cows is a very good start.