HILBERT, Wis. — Thiel Cheese & Ingredients, no stranger to changing with the times, is once again on the move, positioning itself to better meet the needs of a changing industry.

On the surface, one of the changes easiest to see is a name change from simply Thiel Cheese to Thiel Cheese & Ingredients. The name better reflects the company's focus, says Stephen Thiel, president and COO, Thiel Cheese & Ingredients.

Often times people would think that the company was a manufacturer of natural cheese based on its name, Thiel explains. That's not the case. The company, which once was a cheese manufacturing company when Thiel's grandfather started it in the 1930s, has focused its attention for more than a decade now on custom-formulated process cheese that can be used as an ingredient in a variety of applications. Manufacturing no natural cheese of its own, the company instead relies on suppliers to provide it with the bulk cheese it uses to create custom cheeses, cheese spreads, cheese blends and the like. This ingredient cheese is used in products ranging from soups to frozen dinners to appetizers, Thiel says. The company also combines cheese with non-cheese products such as ham for foodservice and industrial use.

The name change came along with another major change last fall. The Thiel family, longtime owners of Thiel Cheese, formed a new partnership with Facilitator Capital Fund, a private equity group based in Madison, Wis. , and G. Woodrow Adkins, a private investor.

With Facilitator Capital and Adkins' investment, Thiel Cheese & Ingredients — which characterizes itself as a midsize company — can continue growing.

"The thing that's going on in our industry and in other industries is extreme consolidation of firms," Thiel explains. "As the customer base gets consolidated, there are fewer customers to call on."

The company always has worked with customers representing a wide range of business sizes, but also always has prided itself on being able to meet the needs of its smaller customers. Now, Thiel Cheese & Ingredients must possess the ability to satisfy those small customers as well as the needs of larger companies that are growing increasingly larger. The involvement of Facilitator Capital and Adkins helps the company do just that.

"Our focus will still be the smaller customers, but there's fewer of them," Thiel says. "If there's fewer smaller ones, all that's left are the larger customers. Intermediate-sized customers are squeezed out every day."

In fact, with Facilitator Capital and Adkins' involvement in the company, acquisitions are a possibility for the company, too.

Along with the new investment in the company that is allowing Thiel Cheese & Ingredients to further expand some of its processing capabilities, there is additional professional management talent and marketing expertise, Thiel says. Adkins has become the new CEO and board chairman of Thiel Cheese & Ingredients.

Adkins says he sees a lot of potential for Thiel Cheese & Ingredients' growth, which is why he and Facilitator Capital got involved in the company.

The company is known as a "problem solver," formulating cheese to meet specific needs and catering to the needs of many types of customers. Some examples of Thiel Cheese & Ingredients' innovation include its tube cheese for round applications and its extended shelf-life blue cheese. The company's executives have always expressed pleasure with customers coming to them with problems they need solved or new ideas for products they want Thiel Cheese & Ingredients to create.

"One of Thiel's great strengths is its speed and agility," Adkins says, noting that he is pleased with the staff's strong knowledge of cheese formulation.

The key now, Adkins and Thiel agree, is to get the message out to potential customers that the company is a problem solver and position the company to better meet the needs of customers as they grow larger.

"It's a cluttered market, and we need to break through that clutter," Adkins says.

Thiel Cheese & Ingredients will strive to do this in a number of ways. For one, the company is working on a PowerPoint presentation — something it hasn't had up until now — to explain to current and potential customers the services that Thiel Cheese & Ingredients offers. Once completed, the presentation will be made available to the company's entire distribution network, Adkins says.

The PowerPoint presentation has the potential to include a great deal of information, including the fact that the company's production volume has doubled in the last three years. This past year, the company installed a 5-pound loaf line and added 7,000 square feet of production space (to the existing 8,000 square feet) and 22,000 square feet of warehouse space (to the existing 36,000 square feet).

The 5-pound loaf line gives the company greater flexibility than ever before. Prior to its installation, the company was able to offer 5-pound loaves but the process was semi-manual, Thiel says. Now with the automated form, fill and seal line, the company can offer larger quantities of the 5-pound configuration for both foodservice and industrial use. There is a great deal of potential for the product in delis, Adkins says.

In addition, the company recently hired a consultant who has developed a HACCP plan for the facility, Adkins says. More new equipment and additional efforts in the areas of research and development also are planned.

"We need to focus on R&D," says Adkins, noting that is now one of the company's strategic initiatives. This strategic initiative will include going into the marketplace and searching out customers' needs and developing new products.

The company wants to find out if customers and potential customers are having problems that Thiel Cheese & Ingredients can solve or whether Thiel Cheese & Ingredients can provide a similar product to what they already are buying with a quicker turnaround time.

"We need to find out what we can do for customers that isn't being done for them," Adkins adds.

Most recently, the company has developed a "super no-melt cheese" that doesn't melt in high retort conditions, says Thiel. In addition, late last summer the company began producing kosher products. It currently offers full-fat kosher cheese and in the future will offer reduced-fat kosher cheese as well.

In addition to developing ingredient cheese that meets specific needs such as meltability, color or flavor, the company also is considering moving in the direction of providing consulting efforts on the equipment and processes necessary to make a finished food product using the company's cheese. Thiel says it seems there are fewer new food products coming into the marketplace because developing the products is too costly. R&D programs often are being cut back as companies merge, he further notes. However, outsourcing to companies like Thiel Cheese & Ingredients is a way for customers to get the most for their dollar while getting the expertise of a company that has the day-in and day-out experience with ingredient cheese R&D, he says.

Positioning itself for the future, Thiel Cheese & Ingredients hopes to meet the needs of these customers and grow with them, providing them with a wider range of services as necessary, Thiel says.

CMN