TAMPA, Fla. — In the midst of winter, Wisconsin and Florida may seem worlds apart, but one dairy company headquartered in Tampa, Fla., provides a link between those two worlds, ensuring distribution of high-quality Wisconsin cheese throughout the Southeast and beyond.

Reilly Dairy & Food Co., founded in the 1940s by Terrance Reilly and owned and operated today by his son Jerry, began business in the Southeast by developing a warehousing and distribution network that provided dairy manufacturers with milk, cream and powder. Over time it grew to be one of the three largest suppliers of cream in the eastern United States. But what the company is today began to unfold further in the 1970s when Jerry Reilly decided to begin working with Wisconsin manufacturers to help them meet their distribution needs, expanding both their businesses and his own.

Reilly's plan was simple. The cheesemakers he knew were some of the best in the world at producing quality cheese and wanted to spend their time doing what they knew best — making cheese. Reilly wanted to expand upon what he and his father had created in the Southeast — a warehousing and distribution system for dairy products — and get high quality cheeses into Florida's foodservice markets.

"We had a lot of fun in those decades, working together with the Wisconsin cheesemakers at their conventions, and we created a strong demand for Wisconsin cheese in the Southeast," Reilly says. "Wisconsin cheesemakers have a commitment to excellence and a pride in accomplishment. I could really relate to that."

"As we were moving forward, we came to be an important factor for small manufacturers who didn't have their own marketing arms," adds Paul Cornille, director of international sales and marketing, Reilly Dairy, adding that the company has worked with such notable cheesemaking families as the Buholzers and the Lenzmeiers.

"In fact, due to the superior quality of Wisconsin cheese and butter, we selected Wisconsin Gold as one of our brand names for our products," Reilly says.

Over the years, Reilly Dairy has consolidated the bulk of its business under two brand names — the aforementioned Wisconsin Gold and Dixie Fresh. Until now the company has sold its cheese under the Wisconsin Gold label only for foodservice, but it now is beginning to expand into the retail market as well.

Solely comprising Wisconsin cheese, the retail line includes exact-weight bars of Sharp Cheddar, Medium Cheddar, Mild Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, Monterey Jack with peppers and low-moisture part-skim Mozzarella. Packages of cheese singles, butter and many other products also are available for retailers.

The decision to move into the retail market with the cheese was made upon the requests of customers in the Caribbean, Cornille says, who represent a growing customer base.

Over the past 15 years, Reilly Dairy has expanded its business well outside the borders of the United States. First it started with shipping large quantities of nonfat dry milk subsidized under the government's Dairy Export Incentive Program. But given the effects of GATT and NAFTA on international dairy markets, Reilly Dairy saw potential for itself in the world trade arena, particularly if it could receive free trade subzone status. Several years ago, it applied for and received this free trade subzone status, allowing products to be imported and exported from its property in Tampa without having to pay duties. In this free trade subzone, Reilly Dairy is able to combine imported items from any number of other nations with domestically-sourced products into one container and ship them with a very short turnaround time.

Reilly Dairy hasn't limited itself to shipping powder, cultured products, cheese and butter, however. The company also saw the potential for customized fresh products outside the United States. It has a built a fluid milk plant in its free trade subzone in order to supply customers with such items as fresh milk, whipping cream, half-and-half, orange juice and water as well as country-specific products like protein-fortified recombined milk.

The company obtains its milk from one of three large dairies that are members of Southeast Milk, the predominant cooperative in Florida. This arrangement has the added benefit of being able to provide customers product traceability all of the way back to the farm, Cornille says. And with the milk coming straight from the farm and the company doing its own processing and shipping, the company can offer a level of freshness that few others can.

"We'll make the products the day before the boat leaves," Cornille says.

All told, Reilly Dairy has come to represent more than 1,800 dairy products that the company processes, buys, cuts, bags, boxes, stores and ships.

"We're the closest source of a full line of dairy products for Central and South America," he adds.

As Reilly Dairy has supplied its foreign customers with large quantities of fresh items for foodservice, these same customers — often the owners of retail chains as well — wanted to get retail-sized items for their stores. They then began asking for retail sizes of cheese as well.

The new retail line of Wisconsin Gold has been in the works for a couple of years, Cornille says, noting that the label has undergone a major redesign with a dramatic change in appearance.

For the most part, the retail cheese line's presence will be international for the time being. However, the cheese will be available in some U.S. markets as well. In the Southeast, for example, the cheese will be available to domestic customers who are buying retail sizes of fluid products from Reilly Dairy. For the rest of the country, Reilly Dairy has partnered with Green Bay Cheese Co. to market the cheese.

"Domestically, we're reviewing the retail side of the business," Cornille says.

The company continues to grow its domestic business; it built a new 42,000-square-foot distribution facility in Lakeland, Fla., a few years ago and operates a full fleet of tractor trailers to service customers throughout the Southeast and as far west as Texas. However, 9/11 was hard on the foodservice business and while things in that arena are finally bouncing back, Cornille expects the largest growth for the privately-owned company to be its international business. That growth, while extremely rapid, is expected to continue, Cornille says, with growth in both foodservice and retail.

Though different customers may think of Reilly Dairy as a cheese company, a butter company or a fluid milk company depending on what products they buy, Cornille is quick to point out that Reilly Dairy truly is a fullservice dairy company for which there is a definite need, both domestically and internationally.

"We honestly believe that we offer something that fills a need, not just a want," Cornille says.

The company's executives won't say exactly what their next plans are, but Cornille recounts a time when someone asked Reilly where he saw the company in five years, and he replied: "wherever the customers are."

That, Cornille says, epitomizes the company's key focus: meeting the needs of customers and heading in the direction they are heading.

"Jerry really spends time looking at where the world of dairy has been and where it's going," Cornille adds.

CMN