Business
Cheese merchant and refiner Käse Moosbrugger from Mäder has his eye on a new sales market. Starting in 2024, the company will also supply wholesale customers in the US for the first time. Managing partner Stefan Fessler explained this to the business press agency.
10/19/2023 06/24
Online since today, 6:24 am
After a year of preparation, we are currently in negotiations with several US wholesalers who distribute the cheese specialties to their US retail customers. “We assume we will export around 50 tonnes of cheese to the US next year.” Only cheese made in Vorarlberg and refined in Mäder will be delivered and departs from here.
It’s about positioning yourself in the market with special products that are not available in the USA. “Standard goods that everyone offers can only be sold based on price. But with our special types of cheese, the USA is a financially attractive sales market for us,” says Fessler. The strategy of entering a new market, especially with special types of cheese, already bore fruit in France years ago. Currently 470 tons of cheese are exported there.
Already working in Canada since 2022
Fessler assumes that the US will be responsible for a good quarter of sales within five years, especially as the US market is already developing strongly economically. France, Germany and Austria are currently the strongest sales markets, each accounting for a third. According to Fessler, the forecast is based on experiences in Canada, where the company started in November 2022. So far, 13 tons of cheese have been sold. However, the Canadian market is smaller and structured differently than the US market. Furthermore, so far they only sell there through wholesalers. “We are therefore very pleased with the development in Canada so far.”
New building in Vorarlberg “uninteresting from a business point of view”
Fessler has now put aside plans he pursued just a few years ago to build a new, larger company headquarters elsewhere in Vorarlberg in order to meet the growth trend. “It has become economically unattractive due to high land prices and construction costs, as well as bureaucracy.” Furthermore, there are almost no new employees in Vorarlberg. To expand their own sales network, they look for existing cheese merchants or refiners that they can buy.