| Sorrento Lactalis has taken that new production capacity and run with it.
Since finalizing the acquisition, the company has streamlined plants including adding new state-of-the-art warehousing systems in Buffalo, N.Y., and Nampa, Idaho. The company also is nearing completion of a major plant expansion at the Nampa site.
These changes will help the company provide more consistent, high quality product, Bensabat says. They also are allowing the company to offer more products within the company's brands.
"We continue to put a lot of emphasis on and believe in the value of brand equity," Bensabat says.
• Growing the Italian cheese category
Growth of brand equity is especially important for Sorrento Lactalis' Sorrento and Precious lines. Sorrento and Precious are two very similar Italian lines, with Sorrento being the East Coast brand and Precious being the West Coast brand. The name differences are due to the company's acquisition-heavy past and its desire to continue building on the already-strong brand equities of Sorrento and Precious, explains Fred Hermann, corporate director of marketing, Sorrento Lactalis.
To increase the presence of both brands in the minds of consumers and retailers, as well as to build category volume, the company is focusing on providing new and innovative products that meet needs that other companies don't fill, Hermann explains. Thus, the Sorrento and Precious brands have launched flavored Mozzarella cheeses in tomato basil, roasted garlic and jalapeno in chunk and shredded forms, as well as a shredded roasted red pepper flavor. The company's line also includes new packaging aimed at making Italian cheese shreds easier for consumers to spot and use, he says.
 For the company, flavored Mozzarella makes sense because Mozzarella is normally thought of as an ingredient cheese and not so much as an eating cheese.
"We want to give new uses for Mozzarella, such as eating the cheese at a party with crackers," Hermann adds.
The company isn't ignoring the fact, though, that Mozzarella likely always will be a stand out in the ingredient category. That's where the innovation of the flavored shreds come in, along with marketing efforts encouraging consumers to try the flavored Mozzarella shreds in traditional recipes.
"With the flavored Mozzarella, you can create a new taste and spice up old recipes," Hermann says. "If you make a given recipe once a month for your whole family, you can do it more often now with a different flavor."
To push this message, the company has launched a promotion with television ads, FSIs and a 28-page recipe book filled with meal ideas using flavored Mozzarella. The company also is sponsoring several thousand in-store demos, Hermann says.
• Stuffing cheese with pizza sauce
The company's innovation in the Italian category doesn't stop there, though.
Another important product introduction being launched this summer is Sorrento and Precious "Stuffsters" — a string cheese with pizza sauce in the middle.
The product is an extension of the company's popular Sorrento "Stringsters," its string cheese aimed at children with both kid-friendly packaging and a kid-friendly website, www.stringsters.com. (Incidentally, the company also is in the process of switching over the Precious string cheese product to the Stringsters name as well.)
The Stuffsters product, which is being introduced to the trade now and will be launched for consumers in August, is a "tremendous advantage" for the consumer because it provides the pizza and cheese flavor without the messiness of dipping cheese sticks into pizza sauce, Bensabat says.
The company is closely guarding the "technological revolution" that took place to create the product because that technology has resulted in a product containing sauce that won't drip out when the cheese is bit into, Bensabat says. It is a result of a long research and development process, he adds.
"The cheese category has been fairly boring in terms of new product introduction and we want to bring newness to it so that it can get revitalized," Bensabat says.
While the focus of Sorrento Lactalis is on branded retail, the company also is heavily involved in private label. Two years ago, it acquired Concord Marketing, a New Jersey-based cheese manufacturer producing private label Italian cheese with strong retail emphasis.Another major area of focus for Sorrento Lactalis is foodservice. The company's foodservice business is continuing its strong growth with the introduction of new products such as the year-old Prima Cucina premium Mozzarella. Since this new line has been successful, the company this year is rolling it out on a broader scale, Hermann says.
Sorrento Lactalis also has been present for quite some time in the deli side of the business through sister company Lactalis USA which manufactures under the Président brand a wide variety of specialty cheeses such as Brie, Camembert, Edam, Gouda, Asiago, Fontina and goat cheese. The line of specialty items is now also extended for the deli by a whole Sorrento Italian specialty cheese line including items such as Fresh Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano and Gorgonzola. Both specialty deli lines are distributed by Sorrento Lactalis in the foodservice channel as well.
• Developing an American brand identity
Part of what Sorrento Lactalis also is now making available to customers is a new line of American-style cheeses known as "Mountain Farms" under the umbrella of Precious and/or Sorrento. The Mountain Farms brand came to Sorrento Lactalis as part of the Simplot acquisition but was never marketed. Sorrento Lactalis plans to change that.
The line, which the company also is debuting this quarter, includes what Bensabat terms "American classics" such as Cheddar, Colby and Monterey Jack in both chunk and shred forms.
The line is being launched initially for retail in the West under the Precious umbrella as well as for foodservice nationally with the tagline "from Sorrento" for the foodservice line. Soon, the company also plans to launch the line for retail in the eastern half of the country. Ultimately, the company will phase out the Simplot name on any of its cheese products, as well as convert the American products it has marketed under the Sorrento name to Mountain Farms.
Through these actions, Sorrento Lactalis, which has gained much of its market share by being a leader in the Italian business, hopes to become a strong player in the American cheese business for both retail and foodservice. The company plans to do this not only with quality product but also with strong consumer promotions.
 "Up until now there has been very little consumer support for American cheeses," says Hermann.
Sorrento Lactalis will begin its consumer promotions with FSIs and a heavy radio campaign during the third quarter. The company also hopes to attract consumers to the product line with the brightly-colored farm scene on the package, as well as the convenience of a recloseable zipper package for all sizes of shreds and chunks.
The American line really adds to the company's product offerings, Bensabat says, enabling retailers to have a one-stop shopping experience for their wide variety of cheese needs.
"We now have a very good coverage of the cheese business," he says.
And even with this latest growth, the company is not finished growing yet, Bensabat says.
"We're strong enough to be one of those suppliers," Bensabat says of the consolidation demands of large retail chains. "However, that doesn't mean we'll stop making acquisitions."
The company also will keep developing new products. A lot of work — and money — has gone into the flavored Mozzarellas, the Stuffsters, and the Mountain Farms brand. Ultimately, though, these new products and future innovations will be driving factors in what makes the company grow, Bensabat believes.
"New products allow us to strengthen our brand image in front of retail buyers and consumers; therefore, we will continue strong R&D expenditures to keep coming up with new items and to continue the revitalization of our categories," he says.
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