instore - May 2016 - 54

specialty insights

normal systems that make things very efficient for them in the store,"
Hoffman says. "I think that looking for us and asking for our products
through a distributor is one way to get around that. That way the products are in a distributor's system and it makes it easier for them to plug
it straight into their system and they don't have to have any special
workarounds for our products."

"Our customers can have a little bit of a
celebration of the seasons when they
try our products. It's not always the
same thing every time."
Sarah Hoffman, Green Dirt Farm

Civitello says one simple step in creating a successful relationship
between the two parties is communication. Mystic Cheese hasn't
always had the best luck with getting in touch with a buyer. "And when
you do get in touch with a buyer and they want your product, I think
it's really important to establish what sort of expectation there is as far
as volumes that we can commit to," he says. "You have to have a really
good line of communication with a store whose typical buying pattern

SUCCESSFUL
CHEESE IN
A POD
Mystic Cheese Co. isn't supposed
to be doing this well. When Brian
Civitello started the company, it was
really just a way to push another idea
- cheese pods.
Civitello worked as a consultant for
several years, continually seeing

54 * MAY 2016 * instore

smaller clients building facilities
that weren't lasting or couldn't
stay up to code. Being the experienced cheese maker he is, he
developed a way to transform a
standard 40- ft shipping container
into a fully functioning, portable
cheese factory.

might be through a catalog or something. A smaller producer might
need a little more flexibility in the selling part."
It's also important to keep in mind the seasonal nature of local cheese
and yogurt products. Traditional, hand-crafted production can emphasize flavor and alter the traditional flavor experience. The milk changes
constantly, and when it hits the creamery, it's not standardized.
"We create something from what we get at the moment," Hoffman says.
"We'll tweak our recipes and change things here and there a little bit so
our products are still recognizable as the same cheese, depending on
which cheese it is. All of those things relate to the seasonal changes in
the milk, so our customers can have a little bit of a celebration of the
seasons when they try our products. It's not always the same thing
every time."
That can lead to a cheese company's customers and their consumers
not always being able to purchase their favorite cheeses. "It's challenging as a small producer in that sometimes you don't always have
the same products like a larger producer would," Civitello says. "So you
might see more seasonal things."
Even when a company has immense pride in being a small, local or
regional producer, the desire or need for growth is nearly inevitable.
Green Dirt Farms primarily sells in the Kansas City region, either direct
to customers or through a distributor. Mystic Cheese does nearly half

"I wanted to see if I could design and
build something that was modular,
and that I could send to a customer
before they built a factory and even
provide training inside the model
that we created," he says. "They'd
be all set to operate theirs when it
got to them. It's supposed to be this
modular cheese system."
To demonstrate the pods' potential,
Civitello started Mystic Cheese Co.
using just a pair of the shipping
containers.
The only problem - if you can call it a
problem - is that customers love the
cheese. A lot. "The pod has been great

for us and it has worked perfectly.
The only problem is that we created
this Mystic Cheese Co. to launch the
cheese pod instead of the brand,"
Civitello says. "But the brand took off
so fast that we haven't had any time
to stop and build another one."
The company has grown enough
that it now needs more space, which
it will get when a larger factory is
completed and opened sometime
this fall. It's the perfect sales pitch for
the viability of starting a local cheese
company in a shipping container.
"It's a good problem to have,"
Civitello says. "I can't complain."

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