TURLOCK, Calif. — Central Valley Cheese President Anto Baghdassarian has made a home for himself and his cheese in the United States. After less than a decade in this country, the Lebanese immigrant has found success producing Mediterranean-style cheese and dairy products which appeal to a wide array of people.

Much of the company's future is rooted in Baghdassarian's personal past, thanks both to extensive exposure to dairy processing and to a sophisticated scientific education. An American immigrant born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, Baghdassarian is a second-generation dairy processor. At the age of 18, his father was deported from Turkey to Beirut, Lebanon, where the villagers taught him how to make yogurt and other dairy products. In 1931, he then began operating a dairy processing plant named Karoun Dairies in Beirut, introducing the first pasteurization process into Lebanon in 1951. The company remains family-run to this day. The younger Baghdassarian, born in 1945, grew up in the plant, learning the art of and appreciation for dairy processing.

After completing business school, he returned to his father to join the business. Again his father refused.

"What would you bring me?" Baghdassarian says his father asked. He then told his son, "Bring me the new technology."

So Baghdassarian enrolled in agriculture school in Lebanon, graduating first in his class, which opened doors for him to continue his studies through a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization program. It was in Copenhagen, Denmark, that he did the extensive work on microbiology which serves his company well today, Baghdassarian says.

After completing his education in 1967, he headed back to Beirut and modernized the family plant, enabling it to serve as the main supplier for all Lebanese chain stores, hospitals and troops of the United Nations and United States.

It was Baghdassarian's appreciation for his extensive education, however, which brought him to the United States. He moved his family to California in 1990 with the hope of educating his children, who would have gone to Lebanese colleges were it not for a rash of professor kidnappings and general civil unrest in the nation.

While he made the move to the United States to encourage his children's educations, the move left Baghdassarian without a career. So, while performing odd jobs to support his family, he slowly learned the American system of regulations and requirements for dairy processing. Then he borrowed some money and rented a plant in Hollywood, which he named Karoun Dairies after his family's plant in Beirut.

By 1999, his Mediterranean-style cheese business was booming, so he bought a larger plant in Turlock, which he renovated to make into a state-of-the-art facility. He currently operates both facilities, as well as a 500-goat farm in Turlock which is run by a Central Valley plant manager. The company uses the same recipe to produce both goat's and cow's milk cheeses, allowing the milk to lend the cheese a distinct taste. Karoun Dairies remains the brand name for Central Valley Cheese as well as being an integral processing facility for the company.

The company produces Mozzarella and sweet curd, Baladi (also known as "village" or "country" cheese), Syrian (a delicately flavored, unripened cheese with a slightly chewy texture), Ackawi (a cheese with a complex flavor and a smooth, dense texture), Feta, Kefir and Queso Blanco cheeses, as well as yogurt, in quantities and sizes suitable for both retail and foodservice. The business volume is divided up nearly equally between the two categories. In addition, the company recently agreed to perform private label production of its string cheese, which the company still hand-pulls in the old country method.

Central Valley Cheese originally began distribution of its products to roughly 750 mom and pop stores in California by way of several company-owned trucks, Baghdassarian says.

"I accommodate stores from every ethnic group," Baghdassarian says of the company's California distribution.

But the ethnic market is not the only niche market he serves. Baghdassarian recently applied for an organic processor license and soon will be producing organic products. He also is kosher certified, meaning that the entire farm-to-finished product process is supervised and approved by a rabbi. The company's current milk supply is completely rBST-free, as well.

In addition, other specialty stores are beginning to pick up Central Valley Cheese's product via word-of-mouth promotion and customer requests. Company sales and marketing official Gary Correll recalls seeing the company's kefir cheese on Martha Stewart's show this past May. The product was brought on by a New York-based guest chef who Correll says couldn't have given the product a better pitch.

"She held it right up to the camera and talked about how she favors our kefir above all others," Correll says. "You can't buy that kind of advertising."

With the orders coming in faster and faster, as well as with major supermarkets in California beginning to carry the cheese, Baghdassarian plans to use the second plant's remaining capacity to stop turning away business. The second facility, roughly 64,000 square feet, currently is being operated at only 8 percent of its capacity, Baghdassarian says.

What makes the company ideal both for retailers and foodservice outlets to work with is its size. Central Valley Cheese is unique because the company produces a specialty item in larger quantities and with more reliability than farmstead cheesemakers without turning out a commodity cheese, Baghdassarian says.

"The big plants can't handle specialty cheese," he says, adding that Central Valley Cheese makes larger quantities of specialty cheese without ending up with a mass-produced taste.

Despite the company's recent success, there were challenges in adapting to American cheesemaking, he says.

"When you come to a country like America, your shelf-life has to be three to four months and your cheese has to taste just like in the old country, where cheese was made and eaten within 10 days," Baghdassarian says.

Thus, Central Valley has placed an extreme emphasis on cleanliness which allows its products to have up to a six-month shelf-life.

However, this cleanliness also serves as a challenge to the company. Because the milk supply is so clean, he says, there's often little flavor left in the milk compared to the milk with which he used to make cheese back home.

So the company works extra hard to ensure the product's quality and flavor through recipe development, Baghdassarian says. The cheeses are hand-crafted and are never rushed through production, he adds.

"We're not economically-driven when producing cheese. We don't rush the cheese. … We give it time until it's right," Baghdassarian adds.

Another advantage of being smaller — and therefore more flexible, Correll says — is that the company and its 50 employees enjoy a team mentality.

"Anto runs the business like a family operation. He takes the business very seriously, but so does everyone else," Correll says.

"Each employee is as careful as I am with the quality of the product because they are just as invested in the business as I am," Baghdassarian says.

Correll agrees. "We're not guided by money, we're guided by the group's success. Anto puts family first, and here everyone's family," he says.

CMN