Quality and environmental commitment Valio

QUALITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

Valio Ltd is the biggest milk processor in Finland and the market leader in all key dairy product groups in its domestic market. Felicity Landon reports.

Good products are rooted in good raw materials, says Valio. And in Valio’s line of business, that means putting the emphasis on healthy and happy animals, high-quality silage, systematic feeding and the right production conditions, in order to ensure good raw milk.

“Quality assurance procedures make the dairy farms that produce our milk an integral part of the Valio Group operating system,” says the company. “The milk produced on a Valio dairy farm is of excellent quality, both technically and ethically. Quality is based on the producers’ expertise and the continuous development of the operations of the entire chain.”

In total, around 2000 million litres of milk is delivered annually to dairies in Finland – and Valio processes and markets 86 per cent of this volume. The company is owned by about 9200 Finnish dairy farmers and turns over €1.8 billion a year. Its success is based on securing milk production in Finland and the vitality of the nation’s countryside by processing milk into tasty products that promote health and well being. Strong domestic presence

Valio has 15 production plans in Finland. Fresh products – milks, fermented milks, creams, yogurts, sour cream and quark – are processed and packaged at Riihimäki, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Seinäjoki and Oulu. There are a chain of distribution terminals operating in connection with these dairies.

Elsewhere, Valio makes cheese in Lapinlahti, Joensuu, Haapavesi, Kaitsor, Toholampi, Äänekoski and Vantaa, and production of butter and spreads is concentrated in Seinäjoki. Milk and whey powders are produced in Lapinlahti, Haapavesi and Seinäjoki, and UHT products are made in Turenki.

All 15 production plants follow the same stringent quality control regulations in producing this range of products. In addition, Valio manufactures milk, yogurts and other products for the Baltic markets at its Laeva dairy in Estonia, and cheese in its Estonian subsidiary Vöru Juust. Valio also owns a cheese packing plant in Belgium through its Valio-Vache Bleue subsidiary, and a customer service centre, including production facilities, in Moscow.

To give an idea of Valio’s influence at home, the group paid €777 million to its dairy cooperatives for their raw milk last year. It provides employment for about 30,000 people in Finland, which represents about 10 per cent of the entire food industry sector. In large parts of the country, dairy farms act as the ‘engine of vitality’ in the area around them, Valio points out – and the profit from the group’s business operations is paid to its dairy farmer owners. In all, adding together Valio’s purchases of the commodities and services it requires, the milk producers’ purchases, and Valio’s payroll and taxes, the group generates more than €1 billion of income for the Finnish economy.

In two corporate responsibility surveys commissioned by Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in 2007 and 2010, consumers named Valio the most responsible company in Finland. A survey commissioned in 2009 by trade magazine Osuustoiminta named Valio the number one food industry company for corporate responsibility.

But Valio’s influence is clearly not restricted to its domestic market. “Valio produces a wide range of dairy products that are known for high quality and purity – not just in Finland but in 65 countries all over the world,” says the company. Valio International’s main strategy is the supply of products to its neighbouring countries, namely Sweden, Russia and the Baltic States. However, cheese is its strongest export and here Valio is working hard to gain market share in selected European countries and the USA. It has global sales of its food ingredients products and international operations, including licensing, that account for one-third of its turnover.

Award-winning innovation

Valio is also recognised for its focus on R&D and new product innovation. In particular, the company has pioneered the development of lactose-free technology and analytical methods to determine low lactose levels in foods. Its HPAEC-PAD (high performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection) method is accredited by the Finnish Accreditation Service, FINAS.

Valio’s patented and award-winning membrane filtration technology enables the production of a lactose-free milk drink with the taste of fresh milk. This was first launched 10 years ago in Finland; since then, Valio has developed and brought to market a wide variety of lactose-free dairy products. It licenses the technology worldwide and Valio Zero Lactose skimmed milk powder has gained a major market in the food industry as the proven raw material ideal for a variety of purposes.

Many food producers value primarily its lactose-free properties but the milk powder has also been taken up purely for its high protein and low fat content, and is used in

a large variety of foods, from milk chocolate to diet products.

In milk chocolate, the lactose-free milk powder performs similarly to a standard milk powder but enables producers to respond to a growing market for lactose-free milk chocolate, in Europe in particular.

For diet products, the powder is perfect because of its very low fat and high protein levels. The ingredient is used in sports and recovery drinks, muscle building and low carbohydrate diet products. Milk proteins have proved highly profitable in weight management and muscle building applications.

Remarkably, as Valio says: “Even pets need lactose free foods!” The skimmed milk powder is suitable for use in the production of all foods – even pet foods; like their human owners, many pets cannot digest lactose.

Committed to sustainability

Valio’s commitment to the environment is a vital part of its activities. Its production plants aim to reduce waste water load and volume in proportion to the quantity of milk taken in. Production energy efficiency was improved last year by installing lost heat recovery technology at four plants. More than 80 per cent of Valio packaging for the domestic market was made of material which can be recycled in Finland. And finally, Valio is the biggest distributor of refrigerated goods in Finland – transporting 760 million kilograms of refrigerated foods last year.

Special attention has been devoted to the delivery trucks’ degree of filling and route optimisation. And this year (2011), Valio has become the first company in Finland to use a delivery lorry fuelled by waste ethanol. n