The Swiss specialists in dairy products

The Elsa Mifroma Group is the market leader in Switzerland in the production of dairy products and the ripening of cheeses. It is also an important player on the international dairy markets.

Elsa-Mifroma has a passion for milk. In fact, it processes some 300 million kg of milk each year and manufactures more than 550 products including drinking milk and cream yoghurts, drinking yogurt, desserts, fromage frais and quark, as well as a wide range of condiments and grocery products such as vinegars, salad dressings, sauces, mayonnaises, tofu and soya drinks. With more than 60 years’ experience, the company is committed to maintaining the highest standards of Swiss quality and to adhering strictly to its core values of expertise, authenticity and innovation.

Elsa-Mifroma is owned by Switzerland’s Migros, a cooperative enterprise that was founded in 1925 and is today the country’s largest supermarket chain and its largest employer. Continuous development over the years has played an important role in establishing and maintaining the market-leading positions held across the group, as Elsa Mifroma CEO, Matthew Robin, explained “We are a proud Swiss company with a long-term focus on durable production. That means stability in everything we do, not just now because it is fashionable but because it is the right thing to do for our country, our employees and our products.”

The cooperative character of Migros’ activities means that, with no shareholders, the company is able to focus on what it believes makes for a more sustainable, socially responsible business, while still making considerable profits that can be reinvested. Mr Robin added, “It’s ironic that by not focusing on building profits, we actually end up making great profits. But that is the beauty of running a large scale business, or indeed any business, in a socially conscious, ethically managed way – it is rewarding in so many ways. Our philosophy has always been to provide good quality, high standard products at a reasonable price in a responsible manner, and by doing so we have created a very successful industrial group.”

Five companies

The Elsa-Mifroma group is made up of five companies. Elsa itself (Estavayer Lait SA) is the largest Swiss single-site dairy process-

SIG Combibloc

With drinksplus, SIG Combibloc has developed a technology that makes it possible to aseptically fill in carton packs new trend drinks containing pieces of food that add extra value – and this can be done quickly and cost-effectively using standard filling machines from SIG Combibloc for beverages. The individual particulates in drinksplus products can be up to six millimeters in length and width. The drinksplus concept makes it possible for manufacturers in the beverage industry to break into a completely new product segment for products aseptically packaged in beverage cartons, enabling them to supplement an already successful product range or a brand portfolio with added-value products. Combining topquality drinks with added extras underscores the premium nature of the products, and fits perfectly with one of the key current trends in the beverage market: on the one hand, consumers want healthy food, and on the other hand they are looking for interesting and unusual new taste experiences.

ing plant. Located in Estavayer-le-lac, it was established in 1955 by Gottlieb Duttweiler and at first specialised in canning vegetables before moving into dairy products in 1960. Today it employs more than 600 people, processes around 270 million kg of milk annually from its rigorously selected producers and manufactures an extremely wide range of products to the strictest hygiene and quality requirements. Its constant concern for the environment even extends to ensuring that almost half of its production is transported by rail.

The Mifroma company, based in Ursy, specialises in the ripening and packaging of cheeses. Since it was founded in 1964, its high-quality cheeses have been aged in a cave carved by nature out of sedimentary rock over thousands of years. Its wide range of cheeses are ripened there for several months before being packaged, labelled and put into storage using a fully automated process. Hundreds of pallets are loaded into refrigerated trucks each day for shipment to customers’ points of sale. Mifroma France is the company’s platform for the French market and the gateway to the wider European market. Located in Chalamont, in Ain, it serves as a centre of excellence for the packaging and distribution of the company’s Swiss hard and semi-hard cheeses as well as a logistics platform for the distribution of fresh

products such as yogurts (the Swiss Delice range), milk drinks and puddings. In 2008, Mifroma France acquired the Ambilly dairy in Archamps, Haute Savoie, extending its product mix with the Baiko brand of premium yogurts.

Mifroma USA was set up in 2010 in Bonita Springs, Florida, to launch onto the US market the finest cheeses matured exclusively in Switzerland – Emmental, Gruyere, Appenzeller, Fondue etc.

Dorig Kasehandel in Urnasch, in north-eastern Switzerland, is a company that has specialised for more the 65 years in the ripening and marketing of Appenzeller AOC cheeses as well as a range of other specialities. It was acquired by Mifroma in 2008, bringing additional potential to the group and an increased presence in the east of the country.

Development and investment

Product development at Elsa Mifroma is led by the extensive trend research the company has access to as part of Migros, and also its own dairy-specific research. Mr Robin said, “As the Swiss franc is performing strongly we have to make sure now more than ever that our products are cost competitive as well as delicious. We are continually looking to the market trends, both mega trends and local trends, to ensure that our current product lines and new products are welcomed by our customers, and that they fit in with our ‘durable production’ philosophy. We work closely with Migros as it has, through its supermarket operations, direct input from the retail market on a dayto-day basis; this gives us exceptionally quick access to valuable data. We also subscribe to trend analysis information. It’s a holistic approach to giving customers what they want, which is what the company and the overall group is all about.”

Each year Migros invests more than a billion francs in the Swiss business economy and in recent years almost 100 million francs have been allocated to Elsa. The most recent investment has been the ELSAvenir project, launched at the end of 2011 and focused on optimising the company’s logistics and goods flow chains so that it could exceed even the strictest requirements of hygiene and quality, certification and standards. The new logistics area, which runs around the entire production building, was a key component of this project. It has resulted in air-conditioned production halls that clearly separate the sterile areas, simplified goods flow and production processes and bright new break rooms for the employees.

“The completion of this project means that we are well-equipped to face the future,” explained Matthew Robin. “All the innovations implemented as part of ELSAvenir are based on a visionary approach which takes into account the opportunities for growth. We are certain that our vast standard product range and added-value items, such as lactose-free and soya-based products, will allow us to make our mark in the future in the highly competitive Swiss and foreign markets.” n