It’s been five years since the results of the MilkPEP milk vending report showed dairy processors that milk vending is a viable way to sell more milk. There have been a number of success stories from regional dairies like Upstate Farms, Buffalo, N.Y., and Smith Dairy Products, Orrville, Ohio. The two top national brands of flavored milk, NesQuik and Hershey’s have also found their way into some vending machines from coast to coast, but there still seems to be a good deal of untapped potential.
Putting Bravo’s shelf stable flavored milk into schools via CCE, using Coke machines, sounds a bit like a football team with a great running game, a deep passing threat, a stingy defense and solid special teams. The Bravo effort could take milk vending to the Super Bowl in that you have the supply chain savvy of CCE paired with the product development and marketing expertise of Bravo Foods.
The beauty of it is that there are two parities with different expertise working together.
Milk vending is not the only place where such partnerships can succeed, of course. At
Dairy Foods we hear about team efforts from dairy companies and sports franchises. We hear about partnerships between dairies and other food companies and we’ve even written about award winning cheeses made through the teamwork of tiny artisan cheesemakers and large cooperatives.
Just last month we shared with our readers a story about a new line of products rolled out in France through the partnership of Stonyfield Farm and Group Danone.
We’ve also written about Stonyfield and HP Hood partnering to produce and sell organic milk. Organic Valley Family of Farms also works in partnership with local processors—among them, Southwest Dairy in Tyler, Texas—to bottle and market locally-produced organic milk.
These partnerships allow both companies to do more together than either one could separately. If you see the opportunity to form a partnership, give it some serious consideration. It could be the best way for your company to get the ball across the goal line.
Our November issue is all about “new”. The main feature presents what we consider to be the best new products of the year. The theme that ties them all together this year is added nutrition. The new products company of the year is Lifeway Foods, a risk taker that always has a great story to tell.
We also have articles on new equipment, new packaging and new chocolate and cocoa ingredients. Happy reading!
