More protein expertise heads south

New regional organisation comes closer to customers in Southern Europe

Growing European sales of milk-based ingredients have spurred a decision to establish a regional organisation for Arla Foods Ingredients in Southern Europe.
Focus markets in the region include Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, France and Benelux.
As the organisation takes shape, customers here will experience a higher level of interaction with Arla Foods Ingredients’ functional milk protein specialists. Regional concepts will also be launched to inspire market-relevant new product development.
Ambitious growth strategy
John Cullen-O’Connor, account manager for the UK and Ireland, has been appointed to drive the new setup, which is central to meeting Arla Foods Ingredients’ ambitious growth strategy up to 2015.
“We experience growing demand from the ice cream, cheese and fermented dairy product sectors in these markets. Interest in our dairy-based solutions for meat and bakery products is also increasing,” he says.
Doing more with less
The world economic slowdown, which has hit particularly hard in markets such as Greece, Portugal and Spain, and sharply fluctuating commodity prices have contributed to the rise in demand.
Using Arla Foods Ingredients’ solutions, manufacturers can cut their raw material costs and, in many cases, improve their product quality at the same time.
“Wherever possible, manufacturers are trying to do more with less. This is where our expertise comes into its own,” explains Cullen-O’Connor.
“Many of our solutions save costs by replacing traditional dairy bulk ingredients, such as skimmed milk powder.”
Expert in making it happen
Close customer relations are already well established in the region through local account managers based in Paris and Athens and long-term distributor partnerships in Barcelona, Milan and Antwerp. A key task of the regional organisation will be to build on these relations and strengthen awareness of the unique expertise Arla Foods Ingredients has to offer.
Cullen-O’Connor expects to make a difference.
“We have some very good people in place, who are known in their markets. What we have to do is make optimum use of our resources at our application centre in Denmark.
“If a customer gives us insight into their process, recipe and what they want to achieve, we have the team who can really make it happen for them.””

For more information, contact ingredients@arlafoods.com