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20.05.2020

Altentreptow moves with the times

In early March, 25 years ago, the first trial run was made at the Altentreptow site to process milk and the site started full production later that year.

1992 The Westmilch Milchunion Mecklenburg-Vorpommern laid the foundation for a production site in Altentreptow, where cheese and whey/milk powder were to be produced. After a delay in construction of more than a year, as archeologists needed to access the site, work began in 1994 on the new plant “Am Heidbergtrift“.

Early in March 1995, the first milk was dried and in mid-September, the first cheese rolled off the production line and started the ripening process. At the time, the dairy was processing some 20% of the milk produced in the state of Mecklenburg Western Pomerania. It also included a Camembert cheese dairy in Bergen/Rügen and a processed cheese and cheese slicing and packaging plant in Altentreptow city center. All together, these operations processed 286 million kilos of raw milk.

In 1996 EuroCheese Vertriebs was founded in Altentreptow and the company developed the cheese slicing plant to become a leading food retail supplier: In 2001, a new cheese slicing plant with 45,000 tons’ capacity began operations at the Heidbergtrift site.

In 2004, a whole new cheese production plant was added to the Altentreptow site to increase the capacity to produce sliced cheese beyond 45,000 tons.

In 2005, wheyco arrived and extended, took over and modernized the drying plant at Heidbergtrift to additionally produce special whey products.

Now, the Altentreptow dairy belongs to the DMK Group and is run by the Industry Business Unit. The cheese slicing operation is part of the Private Label Business Unit. Some 100 employees in the sliced cheese area alone process 350 million kilos of raw milk plus milk concentrates to make around 40,000 tons of sliced Gouda and Edam as well as a Sylt cheese by MILRAM. Now, a total of 380 people work at all three of the production plants at DMK’s Altentreptow site.