Record sales for Schwarzwaldmich
The Schwarzwaldmilch Group of Germany achieved record sales of €195.4 million in 2018. Both the brand businesses saw an increase in sales of 7.8% and the strategic business units of the group contributed to the highest sales in the company’s history.
The dairy was able to pay out a far above-average milk price to its co-operative dairy farmers (€0.4009 cents/kg gross, organic milk price of €0.5505 cents/kg gross). This was in a milk year with high price fluctuations. After a price drop at the beginning of the year, milk prices recovered again in the course of the year.
The driver for this development was the long-term high utilisation of milk fat. An upswing in export business also relieved the market. At the same time, the drought last summer led to a significant reduction in the amount of milk in many parts of Germany.
“In order to counter the extreme price fluctuations with a robust business model, last year we launched the brand business and the further value creation segments consistently expanded. This permanently ensures stability,” said Andreas Schneider, managing director of the Schwarzwaldmilch Group.
The organic product line saw sales growth of 14%, the Schwarzwaldmilch line improved by 5.8% and the LAC lactose-free product line gained 6.5% in sales. The strongest new product was Schwarzwaldmilch Bio fresh hay milk with 3.8% fat.
“The product line has far exceeded our sales targets”, said Caroline von Ehrenstein, head of marketing and communications at Schwarzwaldmilch. “Due to this very positive development, the introduction of a low-fat organic hay milk this year was a consistent step.”
