Market & trends

The year 2022 did not only have an impact on the energy market and global supply chains. Purchasing behavior was also stirred up by high inflation. As a company with many years of experience in food production, we monitored this development closely and reacted quickly when necessary - in particular with high-quality products that continued to be available in food retailing in 2022 on a reliable basis thanks to a flexible supply chain and efficient production methods.

However, although last year was very much marked by crises, the existing change in nutrition and consumption trends continued. For many, food is an important part of their lifestyle, especially when it comes to healthy and sustainable eating. Consumers are looking for high-quality food that on the one hand stands for personal enjoyment, but on the other hand has been produced in a climate-friendly and sustainable manner. Accordingly, the topics of responsibility, passion and convenience were important. At the same time, a culture of debate is developing that does not always reliably separate facts from fake news. As the DMK Group, we have a close eye on these trends and have derived an appropriate corporate strategy to address them. On the one hand, this resulted in our honing our core competencies in the area of milk and cheese, undertaking strong brand work for our own brands such as MILRAM, and also introducing plant-based alternatives, with which DMK entered this new market segment for the first time in 2022.  This strategic approach made 2022 a successful year for DMK overall despite a volatile market. In the following chapter, we look forward to giving you details about which events influenced our work and how we dealt with them.

In the chapter “Our DMK“  we report on the measures we took last year to maintain the supply chain and thus guarantee security of supply for people in times of supply bottlenecks and raw material shortages. However, a glance at the market reveals that this is only part of the picture. Inflation and the associated price increases led to radical changes in the market in just a few weeks from March 2022 onwards and had a major impact on purchasing behavior. In 2022, for example, price was the decisive factor in purchasing decisions for up to 70% of consumers. However, there was also good news in 2022: milk enjoys a good reputation among consumers and is regarded by around 80%* as a healthy staple food that they would not want to do without. In 2022, 77%* continued to buy what they liked and what they felt like, and 58%* were happy to spend a little more on good quality. For us, this is a clear sign that DMK is on the right track with its strategic orientation. We know our raw material inside out, use this expertise for high-quality production, and are committed to greater sustainability and climate protection. At the same time, thanks to our trend research, we are also sensitive to what consumers want and know how to respond to their wishes. This means we remain a reliable and, above all, relevant food producer for customers and consumers even in crisis situations.

*Source: DMK's own representative online survey with n=2000 respondents in Germany via the COE market research institute, Q3 2022..

Despite volatile market conditions, the familiar megatrends remained: consumers still want products that perfectly match their lifestyle and at the same time have been produced under fair conditions. The demands in terms of climate protection, animal welfare, biodiversity and regionality are correspondingly high. This is also confirmed by research conducted by the Zukunftsinstitut, according to which “neo-ecology” is one of the twelve global megatrends.

Reconciling these trends with the current price sensitivity in purchasing behavior is one of DMK's major tasks. In addition to the challenge of offering the right products at the right time and targeting our own portfolio, the launch of our first plant-based products in March 2022 represented a further important milestone (read more in the section on “DMK Group“). These products were developed in line with our trend research and our findings from the area of sustainability, and got off to a good start. Since then, the product range has been continuously reviewed and revised. In this way, we offer consumers who like to try things out, such as flexitarians, a choice within our own range and thus products that fit their lives perfectly.

Our core product, milk, is one of the most widely purchased foods. As many as 88% of Germans regularly bought milk and dairy products* last year and see them as an important part of a balanced diet. According to a survey in January 2023, more than half believe they will still be mostly using cow's milk in 10 years’ time*.

This shows, despite some fundamental debates in isolated parts of society, that dairy products and plant-based alternatives are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they complement each other and offer consumers the opportunity to shop in accordance with their eating habits.  At the same time, we need to create more transparency and maintain an open dialog to show how much work and commitment goes into the modern dairy industry - and what value a natural product like milk has. DMK therefore advocates shared communication by the dairy industry, to put in a plea for milk and educate people about why it will still be an important part of our diet in the future - and can be, if the right solutions are found.

*Source: rheingold salon GmbH & Co. KG, representative study of the population on behalf of the Initiative Milch

The DMK Group has redesigned itself in past years thanks to a clear vision and its employees’ commitment. Our aspiration is to move with the times and satisfy consumers' wishes with top products. Market and trend research is just one component of this. The DMK Group's structural change is also about honing our core competencies.

Specifically, this means that we have closely examined our product range, made it leaner where necessary, gradually improved well-known products and added new products to the portfolio in a strategically meaningful way. In the fresh dairy sector, the profile of the MILRAM brand in particular was further honed in 2022 (read more in the section on the “white line”), but the traditional cheese brand Uniekaas from the Netherlands has also undergone a serious and important relaunch (read more in the section on the “yellow line" ). Added to this is the launch of a completely new product range: our plant-based alternatives, the non-dairy products. We are thus well positioned to continue to delight consumers with our range in the future.

In 2022, we added our first plant-based alternatives to the DMK product portfolio. Their introduction is the result of a strategic decision by which we are taking account of consumers' changing wishes and values and living up to our own claim to supply them with high-quality foods that suit their lifestyles. In doing so, we benefit from our many years of experience in milk processing and our knowledge of current nutritional trends. With this combined know-how, we have developed our "green line" and successfully launched it on the market. We started in March with a selection of different products for the MILRAM brand. Although the market segment is already highly competitive, the new range got off to a good start in food retailing. Since then, we have been closely monitoring which products are in particularly high demand and where adjustments need in order to establish the green line permanently in the retail sector. Since its conversion, the ranges have been produced mainly at the Erfurt factory. In addition, further products such as the non-dairy cocoa drink are produced at the Zeven factory.

In addition to the good start made by our plant-based products, our flagship brand MILRAM’s classic products also continue to enjoy great popularity with consumers. To build on this success, MILRAM's brand profile was further honed in 2022. The main focus was on a relaunch of the brand image. All the packaging was redesigned and given blue design elements that evoke the brand's northern German homeland at first glance. The well-known MILRAM beach hut, which has already featured in commercials, becomes the unifying element that, in combination with the logo, makes MILRAM unmistakable.

In keeping with the new design, a new claim was also developed that perfectly matches the lightness of the brand and the new image: "MILRAM - Macht's euch einfach lecker" (“MILRAM – just love the taste”). This consistent interaction in the relaunch gave MILRAM products a strong position with consumers and in food retailing. This was particularly evident in the MILRAM Müritzer, Nordlicht, and Burlander cheese varieties, which successfully established themselves as market leaders in their segment at times last year - despite fairly restrained consumer behavior as a result of inflation.

MILRAM’s success is not the only proof of our expertise in cheese. After streamlining our yellow line product range in recent years and improving existing recipes, the next milestones were tackled in 2022. While plant-based cheese alternatives were developed in collaboration with the development of the green line, the relaunch of Uniekaas was also on the agenda. The brand enjoys great popularity in its home country of the Netherlands and was even awarded the coveted Gouda Cheese Award in the "30+ Medium Old" category in September 2022. Building on this strong foundation, the visual image of Uniekaas, including the packaging, was revised without losing sight of the brand's long tradition. The rollout of the new design then began in November 2022. Since then, the Uniekaas brand is being presented in food retail with a new design and is more in demand than ever. Another sign that our cheese creations are to the consumer’s taste.

The DMK Group’s six business units (BUs)  are the drivers of all changes in the company. Their close cooperation has enabled rapid adaptations and rigorous further development in production, development and logistics. In the process, the BUs achieved important synergies from which we will continue to benefit in the future.

Market developments in 2022 seem to have demonstrated one thing clearly: the world is changing at breakneck speed - sometimes in ways we had never dreamed of. However, thanks to our Vision 2030, our many years of experience, our knowledge of current nutrition trends, and a strong team, we at DMK are in a good position. We had the agility and courage to adapt to new situations on the market within a very short space time, while at the same time rigorously pursuing our own plans. The successes of the year 2022 have strengthened us and enabled us to stick to our strategy. At the same time, we will continue to keep a close eye on the market and consumers' eating habits. And that's not all: we will continue in the future to address the major issues of our time - for example, sustainability. Find out now about the actions that brought us a step closer to our goals in the past year in the chapter on  “Sustainability “.