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..