To understand the potential of Swiss Valley Farms, a $425 million a year dairy business and a force to be reckoned with in the specialty cheese market, one must examine the company’s tri-fold structure, composed of its Members, Workforce and Customers. As Swiss Valley Farms CEO Don Boelens will tell you, all three entities are vital to the success of the company, which manufactures specialty cheese products and cheese ingredients for industrial, foodservice and private label customers. A drawing of a three-legged milking stool featured next to the company’s mission statement illustrates the concept of the three groups working together as the foundational pillars of the cooperative.
Boelens says Swiss Valley Farms is thriving in part because the co-op is producing specialty cheeses of exceptional quality. But the other ingredient of the company’s success is a shared sensibility among all the players. “We’re a company with people who hold strong family values,” says Boelens. “We have partnerships and relationships, but the people we pick to work with understand the value of family.” And like any family, the Swiss Valley Farms family has been faced with growth and change, gain and loss, challenges and opportunities, all of which have made the company stronger and better positioned for future success.
MORE TIME FOR CHEESE
In 2008, Swiss Valley’s cultured plant, located in Cedar Rapids, IA, was devastated by flood waters and and forced to close. In June of 2009, Swiss Valley made the decision to sell its Dubuque, IA bottling plant, an asset held since 1976, to another dairy cooperative, Prairie Farms. Prairie Farms now owns these beverage and cultured products and they continue to be marketed under the Swiss Valley Farms brand name. Letting go of these assets allows the co-op to focus more on the growth opportunities it sees with its core product line-up, which consists of Swiss, baby Swiss, blue, and cream cheeses, as well as its cheese ingredient offerings, including cold-blended club cheeses and pasteurized process cheeses.
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