Creamy Creation Declares Expansion in USA
Creamy Creation is expanding in the United States. The makers of dairy liqueurs will have a brand new plant in Batavia at their disposal by mid 2007. This means room for growth in the United States and in Europe.
28/12/06 Harrie van Echteld is project manager for the construction of the new plant. “I work here and follow this MACC project: Manufacturing Americas Creamy Creation. Up to now our partner O-At-KA, also a dairy cooperative like Campina, made dairy liqueurs for us, but we have reached the limit there as far as production is concerned. The plant in Rijkevoort (the Netherlands) doesn’t have space for extra volume either. By creating new production space at O-At-KA we will also create space at the Rijkevoort plant. This vacant capacity will be used for the growth in the European market as well as in the Asian and African markets.”
It took a great deal of preparation before the construction of the new plant could be started. Van Echteld, “That’s because O-At-KA will own the building itself and Creamy Creation will own the production installations. Our experts have made a design for the production that complies with our requirements, but the staff at O-At-KA are going to carry out the production for us and they, too, have their own requirements. We are going to use all O-At-KA’s facilities with respect to electricity, steam, water, etc. We are embarking on collaboration for the long term and we have to make firm agreements.” The construction of the new unit costs several millions. For a business unit like Creamy Creation this is an enormous investment, which has an enormous impact on the company, as well.”
The entire working group is counting on being able to start production in the new plant early in the summer of 2007. “This will, however, only be possible if we aren’t troubled by long periods of severe frost. Recently, the snow was one metre high. There was a blizzard over Lake Ontario approaching Batavia. Well, then we can’t make any progress. We have called in an engineering consultancy to supervise the work in Batavia. All the regulations concerning the environment, working conditions and hazardous substances (we work with alcohol of course) differ from the Netherlands. This requires expertise from the USA itself.”
“Cream liqueurs are luxury products”
Consumers are sometimes difficult to fathom. While they are price conscious or economical when it comes to everyday shopping, they do not hesitate to splash out on real luxury products. “Cream liqueurs are luxury products. Strangely enough, the most expensive liqueurs with the most impact are the most popular and we want to exploit this trend”, explains branch manager Stephan de Haes from Creamy Creation in the United States.
“The very best quality, the most delicious flavours in the most attractive packaging, in this market there is plenty of room for premiums. The best that a producer can offer sells like hot cakes. A customer of ours sells a strawberry liqueur for $ 21 a bottle, while $ 16 is the usual price and precisely this expensive liqueur is extremely popular.” Stephan de Haes notices that consumers want to spoil themselves more and more. “They buy products of a better quality, more luxury articles, especially for their precious leisure hours. This is reflected in the requests from our customers for whom we develop new liqueurs. We are increasingly exploring at a more luxurious level and this creates more added value in the chain.”
Creamy Creation has every reason to wish to expand its production capacity in the United States. Partner O-At-KA, a company producing the cream liqueurs for Creamy Creation in the United States, cannot meet all the demand at the present moment. “We want to achieve further growth with our customers by offering new concepts for products the lead times of which cover a maximum of three weeks,” says De Haes. “American customers don’t understand when a producer cannot comply with this. Our customers are confident that our supply chain is in perfect order and that we can supply the goods. In order to take advantage of the opportunities that the market now offers and to satisfy the growing demand from customers, increasing production is absolutely vital and this should be done in the USA.”
Creamy Creation wishes to be a valuable partner for its customers: the large distilleries and wine companies on the American and European continent. “We do this by offering our expertise and knowledge when developing new liqueurs for our customers. We are presently developing liqueurs containing less fast and therefore fewer calories. We try to anticipate future trends and devise new products and concepts for our clients. This gives them the best chance of success in the market and we in turn want to share in this.”
