WAPAKONETA, Ohio — Chianti Cheese has been known as a supplier of domestic and imported grated Italian-style cheese for foodservice and industrial use since 1979.

However, the company’s owners want to spread the news that the company now is much more than that. In 2005, Kantner Group acquired Chianti Cheese to round out Kantner’s offerings of dairy proteins and imitation, substitute, process and pizza cheeses.

The result, according to John Sadowsky, general manager, Kantner Group, has been a win-win. Not only has the acquisition broadened Kantner Group’s offerings, Kantner Group’s offerings also have stabilized Chianti.

“It’s hard to be the supplier of just one ingredient. It’s hard to go to someone and just say we have grated cheese,” Sadowsky says.

Now, however, the breadth of products available has put Chianti “on firmer ground.”

• A relatively new name in the business

The name Kantner Group might not be familiar to some, admits Doug Kantner, president and CEO. After founding the company in 1999, Kantner has been working to build the business but now as a company “we need to get the word out,” he says.

Kantner, who has spent his career in the dairy industry including several years as vice president of the industrial products division at what is now Lactalis USA, started his own business when he founded Euro Proteins with a focus on the manufacture and distribution of dairy proteins. Later renamed Kantner Ingredients, the company is located in Wapakoneta, Ohio, a location that also serves as corporate headquarters for the parent company, Kantner Group. Then, in 2002, Kantner became the majority shareholder of Blue Valley Foods, a manufacturer of imitation, substitute, process and pizza cheeses in Hebron, Neb., to which Kantner previously had been a supplier. The acquisition of Chianti followed in July 2005. Kantner Group, started as a company with three people, now has close to 80 employees and sales approaching $100 million, Kantner says.

• Wide range of products

With a year-and-a-half of new ownership, there have been some changes at Chianti. Kantner Group has consolidated facilities, closing its New Jersey conversion facility this past fall. While Kantner Ingredients still supplies the raw material, the company has moved the equipment to other facilities and partnered with additional companies for production of certain products, says Kantner, adding that consolidating facilities has made a great deal of sense from volume and cost structure standpoints.

Chianti Cheese converts a wide range of Italian cheese, including imported Parmesan, Pecorino Romano, Parmesan/Romano blends, Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Mozzarella, Ricotta, Provolone, domestic Romano and more, according to Kantner. The cheeses are available in a variety of sizes and packaging options, including random weight wheels, cuts, wedges and custom formulations. The company also says it offers packaging designs that promote innovative thinking and flexibility to help achieve specific product goals.

Meanwhile, Blue Valley Foods’ production of analogs and pizza cheese offers a wide range of products for all Kantner customers. This past year, a shred line was installed at Blue Valley Foods, and the company now can produce 2- to 10-pound bags for foodservice. The company’s capabilities include shredding and dicing, and its products can be used for frozen and refrigerated pizzas and entrees, appetizers and prepared meals, spreads, salad dressings and salad bars, among other uses. The company also can package 20- to 40-pound blocks, Kantner says.

In addition, Kantner Ingredients is growing rapidly. On the opposite side of the country from its Wapakoneta, Ohio, dry blending operation, it operates a second dry blending operation in Commerce, Calif., near Los Angeles. This facility was opened in 2006.

The foundation of what Kantner was built on, the ingredients business includes a number of capabilities: custom ingredient formulations, milk protein concentrates and powders, milk replacers, cheese powders and starter media. Kantner Ingredients offers fully automated blending and packaging as well as complete research and development facilities. Packaging options range from 15-kilogram to 2,200-pound super sacks. The company also has domestic rennet casein production capabilities, having installed equipment to process it at Blue Valley Foods. The company already has made a small amount after purchasing nonfat dry milk for casein production through a now-ended USDA program, but Kantner needs a domestic or international partner to supply the raw material in order to make domestic rennet casein production a reality.

Owning manufacturing capacity is a true asset for the business, Kantner says.

“There are a lot of things we can offer our customers. We’re not just a couple of guys with a phone. We have the infrastructure behind us,” he explains. “A lot of our strength is we do work from the beginning with raw materials.”

• Coming full circle

Kantner Group doesn’t just have physical infrastructure behind it. It also has experience. The company’s top executives — Kantner, Sadowsky and Pam Jeffery, vice president of the powder division — all have long dairy careers and have worked for major players in the dairy industry. In fact in some ways Kantner’s career has come full circle. Kantner, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, worked at Chianti in college and was friendly with the owner. So when the time came to expand Kantner’s ingredients portfolio, Chianti was a logical choice to consider.

Chianti was the right fit in part because of its focus on ingredients and foodservice customers. While both Chianti and Blue Valley have a handful of retail customers, the amount is small, totaling only about 5 percent of Kantner Group’s total business. While expanding on the retail side of the business could be a possibility one day, Kantner says the company presently is best served focusing on its core business as a supplier of ingredients.

“We’re able to consolidate and optimize customers’ orders,” Kantner says. “We can provide customers with some savings. We strive to be a low-cost producer.”

“We try to meet different customers’ needs,” Sadowsky adds, “including top quality, well-priced products.”

The company’s manufacturing abilities as well as its relatively small size compared to industry giants also gives it flexibility.

“Because we are manufacturing, we can respond as quickly as possible,” Sadowsky says. “And we take an active interest in our customers. There’s no problem that’s beneath us.”

“A lot of people say they do that,” Kantner says. “But we have people on the street, and we do try to get actively involved with our customers’ needs.”

Kantner Group offers its own brands as well as private label and while it’s not going to do a private label order of five cases, it is willing to work with small customers.

“We don’t get hung up on small orders,” Kantner says. “Everyone has to start somewhere. We understand what it’s like to start a company.”

CMN