Campina Budgets For Innovation and Expansion

Developing innovative new consumer products, and marketing them in Asia and Europe will be the focus for Campina in 2005.

25/05/01 - Europe’s third largest dairy co-operative Campina, will concentrate on “innovative new consumer product developments” and consolidating its European market in 2005. They will also be focusing on their penetration of Asian markets. “We will be focusing on Vietnam and Thailand because we think it’s a very fast growing consumer market”, says Ria Feldman, a Campina spokesperson. “The government there is stimulating the market and retail is coming up very fast”, Feldman adds. Campina sees substantial opportunities for its dairy-based beverages and desserts to build the company`s market position in Asia.
Campina, has approved a 2005 investment budget totaling more than €110 million. Subject to approval by the Members’ Councils of Arla Foods, with which the company is set to merge in May, the investment budget will be used to boost cooperation between its Dutch, German, Belgium and International divisions responsible for “white” group production. The company will be looking to develop innovative new products in three areas: ingredients; cheese and butter; and drinks, yoghurt and desserts.
Campina will continue to upgrade its facilities in Wageningen, the Netherlands-based research and development facility which was responsible for developing the successful extended-shelf-life liquid milk launched by Campina last March.

Meanwhile Campina has announced that it will sell its Polish production and distribution activities to Larive International with which it’s set to merge in May and shift its focus to milk, yoghurt and dairy based desserts. Operating under a new company named Bacha sp, Larive will continue Campina Polska’s current production and distribution activities with Rafal Linkowski from the Larive group at the helm as the new company’s Managing Director. Bacha sp, will concentrate on improving production and distribution efficiency. “Campina was not satisfied with results of its dairy processing sector in Poland”, says Feldman. The company will “leave the field of production to concentrate on innovative new consumer products”, she says. Larive has a thorough knowledge of the Polish market and a broad industrial experience, says Campina. The Polish market is a commercially interesting and emerging dairy market and that’s why Campina will fully focus on marketing its branded, added value products such as desserts, drinks and yoghurts to Polish consumers. The merger with Larive will enable Campina to concentrate on marketing while simultaneously improving efficiency in the fields of production and distribution.