One of the top Dutch family-run cheese merchants, P van der Sterre, is to take over a large part of the Leerdammer’s cheese portfolio from July.

Leerdammer, the European arm of Wessanen, has agreed to transfer five major cheese brands to P van der Sterre including Landana, one of the top selling slicing cheeses in Germany.

Van der Sterre specialises in premium slicing cheeses with patent-protected names, such as the Prima Donna range. Marketing manager Les Verloop said that the group would concentrate on the middle and eastern European markets to begin with. “However, there is also a small market presence in Spain and Italy and we will be working to increase those with our new cheeses,” he added.

The deal leaves Leerdammer in possession of its best selling cheese of the same name, although this too will be up for sale when jitters in the market caused by various food crises have settled down.

Wessanen wants to shed its dairy interests to concentrate on natural and speciality foods. It recently concluded a deal for its American dairy businesses Marigold Foods and Crowley Foods, selling everything to National Dairy Holdings for 472 million euro. Turnover for Marigold and Crowley Foods last year was 1.04 billion euro.