Dairy Aisle Reinvention

(December 10, 2007) Dairy Management Incorporated’s, David Pelzer, reported more highlights from their recent joint annual meeting in Orlando in Monday’s “DMI Update.” He said that attendees were told that the dairy check off focuses on innovation and information that will “help change the industry to the benefit of all producers by transitioning it to a more consumer-driven industry, thereby increasing demand and find a home for the increasing milk production we’re seeing in this country.”

One way the check off is doing that, he said, is to form partnerships with manufacturers, retailers, and others so as to have dairy products be displayed more attractively in grocery stores and retail centers through what is being referred to as “dairy aisle reinvention.”

“This is very important,” Pelzer said, “Because, if you go into a dairy aisle now, you kind of see a same old thing with all the dairy products being sold in the same area.” The check off’s redesign is to get shoppers to spend more time in the dairy aisle, he said, and buy more products by featuring cheese and other items in various parts of the store and displaying them more attractively. Preliminary tests indicate cheese sales rose 1 1/2-3 percent by doing a better job of displaying those products, he concluded.

Alan Levitt, editor of the CME's Daily Dairy Report, has our weekly dairy market analysis on tomorrow's DairyLine broadcast and Dr. Alan Britten has his weekly "Udder Health Update" in our second half.