Australia’s oldest dairy operator, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB), has announced the expansion of its products into the Foodservice market place.
The development was prompted by the company’s portfolio expansion earlier this year, involving the acquisition of a number of cheese brands from Lion Dairy and Drinks including Coon; Cracker Barrel; Mil Lel; and Fred Walker.
Damien Sorensen, national business manager-Foodservice & Industrial, WCB, said this was the next obvious step in the company’s growth trajectory.
“We have always provided the input cheese to the Lion business, and now we have these iconic brands, coupled with our award-winning Warrnambool Heritage range, it makes perfect sense to beef up and have a deliberate focus on our Foodservice offering”.
Sorensen, who spent more than 16 years in numerous sales roles including National Channel Manager for Lion Dairy and Drinks, has a remit to develop a team and processes to improve the company’s Foodservice business accordingly.
“That means more simplified processes, a more efficient supply chain, better on-time delivery, regular customer contact – all the things that our customers expect a key supply partner to be. We just want to be easier to deal with, whilst providing a premium dairy offer,” Sorensen said.
“It is an exciting time to have these iconic and premium quality brands under our portfolio, backed by a consistent and quality product, an expanded sales force, a key focus around innovation and the support of Saputo,” Sorensen said of WCB’s parent company.
To ensure the continued quality and consistency of all its products, WCB has invested in additional staff including recruiting highly regarded cheese grader, Dave Mellor, from UK dairy giant, Pilgrims Choice.
Mellor tastes up to 200 cheese samples a day to make sure that the cheese is of a high quality and complies with company’s strict regulations.
“Thousands of tonnes of cheese comes out of the dairy every year and it is up to me to grade it all. It’s lucky I love cheese,” Mellor said.
Known primarily for its cheeses, WCB also offers a broad range of other products across the dairy case including fresh milk, butter and cream, all available in bulk packs suitable for commercial kitchens of varying size as well as Industrial applications.
