Emmi acquires blue cheese plant from Great Lakes Cheese Company

The US is Emmi’s largest foreign market, where the company primarily produces and sells cheese. The business involves both exported cheeses from Switzerland and locally-produced cheeses, made predominantly from cow’s milk. It is operated under the name Emmi Roth.

Emmi has strengthened its speciality cheese segment in recent years and the acquisition of the blue cheese plant will continue to grow these efforts.

Emmi Roth’s current blue cheese portfolio includes the Buttermilk Blue Cheese, in Original, Smoked (“Moody Blue”) and Affinée (mature) varieties. Buttermilk Blue is a premium cheese made from raw cow’s milk and aged a minimum of 60 days.

Continued employment

Emmi Roth markets its blue cheeses for the retail and the food service sector. The addition of the Seymour plant means Emmi will be able to extend the value chain, and have more flexibility for Emmi Roth to develop and offer new formats and varieties of blue cheese.

The plant has been in operation since 2005. It specializes in the production and packaging of blue cheese and produces more than 7m pounds of cheese. The plant also has equipment to crumble blue cheese and pack it into cups for retail or larger portions for food service.

The purchase includes the factory, the related land and all of the production facilities and equipment.

The factory has a staff of 50 people, and Emmi said it will offer continued employment to all workers at the plant.

The parties have agreed not to disclose the details of the transaction.