HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen-Agriculture 2000, 2000-03-15, Page 29THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2000. PAGE A-5.
President says years have been challenging
Greeters
Working in the front office of Quality Jersey Products are
Jane Bennett and Deb Williamson.
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen staff
One might say it has been a chal
lenging, educational two years for
Quality Jersey Products in Seaforth.
Since the doors opened in March
of 1998, those involved have experi
enced the difficulties and the grow
ing pains of building a successful
new enterprise.
Yet, they are encouraged by the
gradual, but steady increase in
demand for their product.
The roots of Quality Jersey
Products goes back to the early
1990s when a group of 14 Perth
Huron Jersey producers were look
ing at diversifying their income to
value add, including any lost supply
management through GATT and free
trade. “If we didn't get it out of the
producers we would get it out of
processors,” says Bruce Schmidt,
president of Quality Jersey Products.
With that in mind, the 14 threw
$500 each into a pot which was used
as leverage for more money from the
Community Futures and jobsOntario
programs.
Then Western Business School
was contacted to do a feasibility
study.
“That study opened a lot of doors
for us, but the results were inconclu
sive,” says Schmidt. The study, he
explained was suggesting a direction
which the group didn’t feel utilized
the best potential for what they had -
Jersey milk. “With its higher solids it
lends itself more to cheese.”
The study instead had looked at
full fat, cream-topped bottled milk
which, says Schmidt, is a very small
market.
“We didn’t agree, but having said
that they did open a pile of doors for
us. They put us in contact with peo
ple we didn't know ever existed. It
put us in touch with industry people
who were knowledgeable in fields
we-didn't realise were there,”
One of those was German-bom
Hans Krach, a cheese industry con
sultant who steered them in the
direction of European-style import
replacement specialty cheese, such
as Edam, Gouda and Limburger.
Krach applied to the Domestic
Dairy Product Innovation Program,
run by the Canadian Dairy
Commission which would allow the
group to bring milk in outside of
plant supply quota for the purpose of
making specific import products.
“That gave us the opportunity to
process,” says Schmidt. After that
negotiations began with a dairy in
Cambridge to purchase their opera
tion, “lock, stock and barrel,” he
says. They took over the dairy’s Sno-
White product line, which has
among other things, “a sour cream to
die for. With 30 per cent butter fat
it’s the real McCoy,” says Schmidt.
The Sno-White line also has low-
fat yoghurt, and Quark, a low fat
replacement for cream cheese, for
which Quality Jersey bought the
plant supply quota. Much of the
Quark, which is basically a skim
milk product with no fat or choles
terol is sold in bulk to bakeries, for
use in desserts. A large quantity is
sold as well to restaurants to be used
in dips and creams, says Schmidt.
To get more capital for their ven
ture, the group after talking with
Krach, incorporated in 1997 bring
ing in more shareholders. Today they
number 47 and make up a diverse
group of agriculturally-oriented
investors, says Schmidt.
With money in the bank the com
pany purchased an old lumber retail
outlet in Seaforth which was gutted
to the shell and rebuilt. The doors
opened March 1998 with the Sno-
White line-up. Through that summer
they did test vats of different cheeses
and began bringing specialty cheeses
on line late that year.
Having hired consultants for feasi
bility and marketing studies in the
early going, Schmidt has to admit
that in retrospect their view was
“overly optimistic in the market
potential, both in size and timeline.
“What we’ve found is that the Sno-
White line has grown more quickly
than the Jersey Tradition. It’s been
easier, mainly from the brand name
recognition ”
“Because Jersey Tradition is new
consumer acceptance has been much
slower than we’d hoped. Sales con
tinue to grow but at a much slower
pace than projected.”
On the other hand, Schmidt notes,
the name has only been on the mar
ket for slightly more than a year.
The challenge isn't just to make
the name familiar to consumers but
to stores as well. Schmidt says that
while Sno-White products are avail
able at most local independent gro
cers and at least one large chain, the
Jersey Tradition is a little harder to
find. It is, however, in most area
independents.
The company has done a lot of
promotional work, at shows through
out Western Ontario including one at
the Royal York and having co-repre-
sented a vintner when new wines
were introduced at the Ontario
Museum. Quality Jersey has been
present at home shows and food fairs
in the area as well.
But by far the most widely viewed,
according to Schmidt, was at the
1999 International Plowing Match in
Dashwood.
In reality determining which of
these promotional events has
brought the most positive results is
impossible, says Schmidt. “We have
had such overwhelming support at
some of these and you think next day
the sales will jump, but it just contin
ues to be a steady general increase. It
is an accumulation of all efforts.
With that in mind, he says new
strategies may have to be employed.
“Basically for the future we are look
ing in the short-term of pulling in our
horns a bit by cutting operational
costs to impact the bottom line while
looking at working with other distri
bution to build sales through that
methodology. It’s a little slower
growth strategy, but more cautious,
less capital intensive.”
Currently Quality Jersey employs
Moving things along
Quark starts as skim milk which is pumped into a vat.
Rennett culture is added and it coagulates until the PH
drops. It is then agitated in a tank before it is pumped into a
separator. Pictured is Nancy Thiesen.
10 full-time and a few part-time
staff. They process 15,000 litres of
milk per week. They are overseen by
a seven-member board, with
Schmidt and two others forming a
management team.
“One of the strengths of setting up
the way we did is that people come
in with different skills. Certainly
when you have a larger group and
amalgamate the strengths, it’s a
much broader base of expertise.”
Admitting that the venture has
been more challenging than expect
ed, Schmidt says too, that “it has
been very educational. We’re seeing
aspects of the economy we were
never aware of before and didn’t
care about. It has been exciting to be
on the ground floor and be encour
aged by the steady growth.”
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