Emmi Landquart: 100 million kilograms of milk made into cheese
The cheese production facility in Landquart specialising in raclette cheese has surpassed the 100 million mark. This is the largest volume of milk that has been processed within the space of one year at the site, which has been leased by Emmi since 2003. This success story has been fuelled by the rising demand for raclette in Switzerland and the huge popularity of Swiss large-holed cheese in the USA.
Generous available space fosters growth
When the cheese dairy in Landquart was built in 1993, the focus was firmly on raclette cheese. Thanks to the generous available space, in 2006 Emmi was also able to diversify into large-holed cheese.
The cheese started to become more and more popular among Americans, with exports of Swiss cheese, as they call it, from Switzerland to the USA rising from 1,666 to 4,451 tonnes over the last ten years (source: TSM Treuhand). Demand was so strong that a second dairy for large-holed cheese was put into operation in 2016.
As production volumes continued to grow, storage space in Landquart became increasingly tight, and so the corresponding capacities were expanded in 2010 and 2014. Today, the warehouse houses around 350,000 wheels of raclette cheese, 80,000 wheels of mountain cheese – including the KALTBACH Engadiner mountain cheese launched in 2018 – and 10,000 wheels of large-holed cheese. Over the course of a year, approximately 822,000 wheels of cheese move in and out of the warehouse.
Major milk consumer and employer in the region
Rising production and the associated growth in demand for milk has provided the some 650 dairy farmers from the local vicinity (Grisons, St. Gallen, Glarus, Schwyz) with a secure buyer for their milk. "There are rarely any fluctuations in volume. The machines run at full capacity at least 80% of the time," explains Werner Sutter, who is the long-standing manager of the site.
This year, the site even managed to surpass the 100 million-kilogram mark. Rising production volumes have also created more and more jobs, increasing from 28 in 2003 to 55 today.
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About Emmi Landquart
The Emmi cheese dairy in Landquart was built in 1993 and until 2003 it belonged to Swiss Dairy Food (SDF). Now, the building that Emmi leases belongs to Genossenschaft Bündner Bergkäse. After SDF went bankrupt, the cheese production facility specialising in raclette cheese, together with all its staff, was taken over by Emmi. In 2006, the Landquart site expanded its offering to include large-holed cheese, the largest slice of which is exported to the USA.
Nowadays, the cheese dairy employs around 55 staff and processes 100 million kilograms of milk annually. The lion's share of this is processed into raclette and large-holed cheese, and the remainder into industrial cheese. In addition, 530 tonnes of mountain cheese are matured in Landquart each year.
In 2015, a partnership was entered into with GEVAG (local waste- management company) to develop a solution to replace natural gas with carbon-neutral energy. At the same time, various large-scale heat-recovery projects were launched and implemented. Thanks to these efforts, the cheese dairy was able to cut its energy consumption by more than half within the space of four years.
About Emmi
Emmi is a major Swiss milk processor. The company dates back to 1907, when it was founded by 62 dairy farming coop-eratives around Lucerne. Over the past 20 years, Emmi has grown into an international, listed group. It has for many years pursued a successful strategy based on three pillars: strengthening its Swiss domestic market, international growth and rigorous cost management. Throughout its corporate history, Emmi’s keen awareness of its responsibility to society, animal welfare and the environment has been fundamental to its mission.
In Switzerland, Emmi manufactures a comprehensive range of dairy products for its own brands and private label prod-ucts for customers, including leading exports such as Emmi Caffè Latte and Kaltbach. In other countries, its products – mainly speciality products – are manufactured locally. Alongside cow’s milk, it also processes goat’s and sheep’s milk.
In Switzerland, the Emmi Group has 25 production sites. Abroad, Emmi and its subsidiaries have a presence in 14 coun-tries, seven of which have production facilities. Emmi exports products from Switzerland to around 60 countries. Its busi-ness activities focus on the Swiss domestic market as well as western Europe and the American continent. Half of its CHF 3.5 billion in sales – over 10% of which from organic products – is generated in Switzerland, and the other half abroad. It has over 6,000 employees, who are likewise spread equally between Switzerland and other countries.