Three years into its diversification into the milk business, Trade Winds Citrus says it’s still on a learning curve in the dairy farming business but has made significant progress in the manufacturing processes and launch of milk products.

So far Trade Winds has released four brands of milk products — Tru-Shake, Tru-Milk, Tru-Moo and Dairy Farmer’s Milk — across 12 stock-keeping units (SKUs). The milk flavours span 100% Cow’s Milk across the Tru-Milk, Tru-Moo and Dairy Farmer’s brands; vanilla, peanut, butter pecan and chocolate in the nutrition shake; alongside chocolate, peanut punch and eggnog flavours under the Tru-Moo and Dairy Farmer’s brand.

Business development manager with responsibility for the dairy project, Stephen McConnell told the
Jamaica Observer that Trade Winds has captured “significant” market share, particularly in the chilled segment for products like Tru-Milk, but still has lots of ground to cover in the other areas of the milk market.

“In regards to the ambient shelf, meaning milk products that are not stored in the refrigerator, we haven’t even scratched the surface. Our target over the long term is to be market leaders and a household name as we have done with our juice and drink brands,” he said.

The dairy portfolio currently contributes between eight to 10 per cent of Trade Winds’ total revenues. But the company wants to drive those numbers up this year by tapping into underexploited areas of the business.

It will start by rolling out more products, setting aside a bigger marketing budget and widening its distribution network.

“We are excited to launch Tru-Milk 100% Cow’s Milk in a cupboard-friendly format in the coming months. Everyone also loves the flavoured milks, so we will be expanding this line in the near future,” he said.

Stephen added that with the launch of Tru-Milk 100% Cow’s Milk in Tetra Pak, Trade Winds expects to see “good growth” since the shelf-stable milk market has much higher volume movement as compared to the chilled milk market.

“We will continue to innovate and bring new and exciting flavours to our Tru-Shake portfolio and flavoured milk category. We have a long-term outlook on the dairy industry and just like other areas of our business, we take a bottom-up approach and vertically integrate from farming to finished product on the shelf,” he said.

After three years of work to get into the milk market with little success, Trade Winds snatched the opportunity to acquire the assets of rival business, Jamaica Beverages, after the company was deemed bankrupt.

At the 14-acre complex where it operates from in Bog Walk, the company produces Juciful juices, milk products under the Dairy Farmer’s brand, as well as Fruta juice drink.

Upon acquisition of the business, Trade Winds said it would continue manufacturing plain and flavoured milks for local and export markets while exploring new beverage products.

But even before the acquisition of JBL, Trade Winds purchased 230 local cows and was awaiting their output to start producing the dairy line to jump-start its diversification into dairy products.

Today, Trade Winds has a total herd of roughly 650 cattle, of which 200 are milking animals. Each animal produces an average yield of 8 litres, but that’s a far cry from the company’s long-term targets of 15 to 18 litres.

“To achieve this, we need to continue to improve on our nutrition, genetics and cow comfort and this doesn’t happen overnight,” McConnell said.

The company is still on a learning curve in the dairy farm business, but McConnell says that guided by those three pillars, he is confident that the company will meet its milk production target in the long term.

“The challenges have been mere learning and growing pains. Milk is a very delicate product, and therefore from the milking process to the handling and storage of the finished goods in our cold room storage, the product must be handled with the utmost care to avoid any compromise to the product,” he said.

“Another challenge has been the significant capex [capital expenditure] that we are absorbing on both the farming and the manufacturing side; however, we are confident that as we continue to grow our brands in this space we will recover our investment,” McConnell continued.

External to the company’s operations, McConnell says Trade Winds has been working closely with the Jamaica Dairy Development Board on genetic improvement in dairy herds on a common goal for Jamaica to be self-sufficient in milk production, producing 15 litres on average as other Latin American countries are doing with almost identical climatic conditions.