Nestlé breaks into fresh dairy market
GERMANY – Dairy giant Nestle is to introduce four new dairy products into the cool cabinets of German supermarkets this month. Aimed at the premium market, the long life drinking milk, cream, double cream and reduced fat spreadable butter will be marketed under the Baerenmarke (Bear Brand) label. It is the first time the Swiss-based corporation has launched products into these sectors.
The long life milk, Die Milch, has a fat content of 3.8% and comes in a one litre Tetra Top carton with screw-top opening. Recommended retail price is between 0.87 euro and 0.93 euro. The milk is heat treated through a special process to give a shelf life of 16 days without the taste penalties the company claims is associated with conventional UHT products.
While no information is available on the technicalities of the heat treatment, it is believed to be based on the falling steam flash heating process (FHS), which avoids contact between milk and hot metal and imparts little risk of taste changes or protein denaturation.
The new reduced fat (75%) butter is labelled Die Sahnige and features extra cream. Nestle claims that this produces a butter that is easy to spread straight from the fridge and offers a new type of creamy taste. The 250g gold and blue foil-wrapped blocks will be sold at between 1.23 euro and 1.26 euro.
Also in the new product line are Der Rahm, a 30 day shelf life 25% fat cream sold in 150g pots, and Die Schlagzahne, a 32% fat double whipping cream with a shelf life of 16 days, marketed in a half-litre Tetra Top carton with screw-top opening.
Meanwhile, Nestle is in talks to sell its UK ice cream business to Richmond Frozen Confectionery after a difficult nine years.
Nestle group finance director Graham Millar said: “We’ve all tried very hard for nine years to develop our ice cream business but have not been able to make it big enough to compete in a difficult and competitive marketplace. We are therefore seeking a solution that preserves the hard work that has gone into building our brands.”
Yorkshire-based Richmond Foods is the UK’s largest manufacturer of supermarket own-label ice cream. Nestle entered the ice cream market following the purchase of Clarkes Foods from receivers in 1992. Since then it has built up a porfolio of brands including Extreme Duo, Kit Kat and Mega Truffle as well as various ice lollies, including Rowntree’s Fruit Pastil-lolly, Fab and Orange Maid. The takeover will give Richmond the right to manufacture, import, distribute and sell Nestle’s ice cream range in the UK.
Richmond Foods has warned that there may be substantial redundancies among the 230 employees working at a manufacturing operation in Telford and a marketing centre based in York.
