TILLAMOOK, Ore. — Visit the Chamber of Commerce website for Tillamook, Ore., or read other promotional material about this Pacific Coast county and you will see the tagline, "Land of Cheese, Trees and Ocean Breeze."

It's not simply a matter of good rhyming that puts cheese first. Cheese really is at the heart of Tillamook, the hometown of Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA). The family farm-owned cooperative produces more than 90 million pounds of cheese annually and operates a visitor's center that consistently ranks among Oregon's top five tourist attractions.

It's been said that the year-round temperate climate and the abundant grass pastures of Tillamook County are ideal ingredients for dairy farming and high-quality milk for cheesemaking. Certainly, the cooperative's Cheddar, which has won numerous awards over the years, has distinctive flavor. But it's not just the milk that makes Tillamook cheese what it is. The cooperative's focus on consistency and the use of a recipe that's 100 years old also contribute to a distinctive Cheddar. In fact, when TCCA opened its satellite plant in not-so-lush Boardman, Ore., on the state's dry eastern side, in 2001, a major focus was to ensure the cheese made there from milk from Eastern Oregon cows was indistinguishable from the cheese made on the coast. Today, through the use of modern-day technology and the consistent recipe, expert tasters can't differentiate which cheese was made at which plant, says Jim McMullen, president, TCCA.

"We're a cooperative with a long history … the biggest thing we set out to do is to make a quality, consistent, premium product," adds Chris Dinsdale, vice president, operations, TCCA. "Our heritage is important."

The Boardman plant, known as Columbia River Processing Inc., was built so that the cooperative, which controls well over a third of the retail natural cheese market share in the Northwest, can continue to meet growing demand within the Northwest and beyond. Tillamook currently is the largest retail natural cheese brand in the West. In addition to Cheddar, which constitutes 85 percent of the co-op's production, other products the cooperative makes include stirred-curd cheeses, butter, yogurt, sour cream and ice cream. TCCA's butter, yogurt, sour cream and premium ice cream are sold on the West Coast — mainly Oregon, Washington, and Northern California — but cheese sales have pushed into other markets across the country.

Some of the growth the cooperative is experiencing is being driven by new products and the cooperative's response to demand for convenience items. Demand for the cooperative's standard 2-pound "baby loaves" continues to grow, but not at the same pace as shreds, slices and 1-pound chunks, Dinsdale says.

In response, TCCA has rolled out some new items. New shred varieties — Queso Blend, Mexican Blend, Italian Blend and Fancy Shred — now can be found in the dairy case along with a new 8-ounce smoked medium Cheddar and sliced 2-pound items. The cooperative also has just begun retailing Pack-it-Pals of Tilla-Moos, individually-wrapped portions of Cheddar and Colby Jack cheese. In the future, TCCA will be looking at expanding its sliced line by a couple SKUs as well as further expanding its 1-pound line and its blends of shredded offerings, Dinsdale says.

TCCA also is tweaking its packaging. It recently updated its 8-ounce and 1-pound packages to reflect the old look of Tillamook being printed on the cheese rind. "Farmer owned since 1909" also was added to the packaging. In addition, the co-op's Vintage White Cheddar has a new look including "two-year aged" being printed on the label.

Packaging is ever-evolving, and the 3-A-Day logo, the dairy industry's generic promotion to promote at least three servings of milk, cheese and yogurt daily, is on sliced products and will be added to shreds in the future.

Alongside the introduction of new products and packaging, the cooperative is experiencing growth in Southern California, where it has focused a great deal of its efforts on the Latino community for the past few years.

TCCA has both advertising and public relations outreach programs in Southern California, including grassroots efforts like park clean-ups and events tied in with churches, Dinsdale says. TCCA also offers recipes for Latino families inspired by dishes created by Tillamook cheese consumers during a recipe contest.

In addition, TCCA is working on expanding its presence in Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. It is slowly moving East, currently expanding its products into Chicago, as well. However, expanding in the East is a lot different than the West due to a higher level of competition, McMullen says.

The cooperative also is mindful of the need to grow in a careful, consistent fashion. While there is the capacity to add more cheese production at the Boardman plant, McMullen notes that the cheese — all of which is shipped to Tillamook for aging and packaging — needs to be aged for the appropriate length of time. There also has to be enough inventory to sustain growth, meaning growth can't occur overnight.

"The important thing for us is to do this in a way that we can continue to grow, producing quality cheese," McMullen says. "We're going to grow our distribution and markets as long as we have high quality products."

The cooperative is spreading the word about its products both at home in the Northwest as well as throughout the rest of the West with consumer advertising that includes radio and print as well as TV advertising. The cooperative does lots of couponing and continues to work "first and foremost" with retail partners for tie-in promotions, Dinsdale says.

It's hard to put a quantitative figure on how much TCCA's visitor's center contributes to increased consumption and brand loyalty but it, too, certainly plays a role. McMullen points to a thank you note on his desk from a tourist who claims Tillamook Pepper Jack is second to none. And Dinsdale notes that the Tillamook brand premium ice cream really got its start at the visitor's center where visitors would flock to get their ice cream cone after a tour of the plant.

While all of these methods have helped contribute to the co-op's success, Dinsdale says the cooperative always is looking for new ways to market its products, too.

"The market's always changing," he says. "What we do today may change tomorrow."

CMN