Makers Who've Made It: Vermont Creamery
In this Q&A series, Specialty Food News focuses on the brand journeys of Specialty Food Association member companies that have grown from humble beginnings to achieve success in the specialty food world.
Vermont Creamery was a pioneer of artisan dairy products in the U.S. and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Founded in 1984 by Bob Reese and Allison Hooper after a Vermont Agency of Agriculture dinner that called for locally made goat cheese, the company grew to meet rising demand among chefs and has since become a “must-have” brand for retailers around the country. Vermont Creamery was acquired by dairy cooperative Land O’Lakes in 2017.
Specialty Food News recently spoke with the co-founders, honorees of the the 2024 SFA Lifetime Achievement Award, about the company’s growth and how they achieved success as specialty food makers.
What was the specific market opportunity that you were trying to fill?
Reese: When we were starting out, there were not a lot of cheese shops, and we were just building relationships with chefs. It started with the European chefs, and then the Vermont chefs who were looking for local ingredients, and we just happened to have the great luck to connect with them.
Hooper: If we had done any market research at the time, the research would have told us that nobody was eating this, and there was no market for this. We really had to create that demand on our own. It’s really next to impossible to bring a new food category to the market without being well-funded, but it was a time in the ’80s when the market was actually pretty forgiving. It was not too crowded with brands, and there was some interest in supporting small makers and food entrepreneurism.
What is it that sets Vermont Creamery apart?
Reese: I think the “Vermont” name certainly had cachet connected to the dairy industry. People were big fans of Ben & Jerry’s, and the Cabot Creamery Cooperative was making a name for itself. We went to food shows, and people said, “Oh, here’s another darling little company up in the hills of Vermont, and they are making this unbelievable cheese.”
Hooper: We always had very high-quality ingredients, and I think that is true for all Vermont products in the specialty category. Vermont is not a low-cost production region; it costs more to produce milk and grow things in Vermont. That inherently pushed all of us to position ourselves at the high end of the market, and so that was what we traded on—always having the very best quality and providing great service to chefs. The other thing that set us apart was innovation. We were always bringing new things to the market. We were known for not being a “me-too” company.
What was your dream for the brand back in the early days?
Reese: I think that the dream was to make a great product and have the reputation of being a solid community member of the Vermont dairy industry. We didn’t have the ambition to sell to 350 Whole Foods stores. We would go to New York and sit down and have coffee with these master chefs, and they were so interested in what we were doing. They made us feel comfortable about the craft of making cheese, and what our position was in the marketplace.
Hooper: In my naiveté, I thought, “Why couldn’t we create a goat’s milk industry in Vermont? Why couldn’t we dot the landscape with goats and add a new kind of agriculture?” In France, you see it everywhere. That was really the vision—to create a product that comes from the land and supports the land and also is enjoyed by the finest chefs. It took a long time because there was a high level of skepticism among dairy producers. Now it’s really starting to catch on, and I think Land O’Lakes purchasing Vermont Creamery gave a high level of legitimacy to our company in the eyes of dairy farmers.
When did you realize that Vermont Creamery had made it?
Reese: It took a while, that’s for sure. Early on, when we were selling mostly to restaurants, we had never really thought about developing a brand. Our original name was Vermont Butter and Cheese Co., and we changed the name to Vermont Creamery back in the early 2000s, and that had legs. We started to actually market that brand, and we did quite well getting the Vermont Creamery name out there. People started mentioning the name, and talking about us, and that was kind of a magical moment.
Hooper: I think that when Vermont Creamery got to the point where we were not shy about passing on cost increases to the marketplace, and people still bought the brand anyway. We were always a little bit shy about raising prices, thinking that we were going to lose market share, or that people would drop us. It just didn't happen. What that told me was that we had become a “gotta have it" brand. Vermont Creamery became a brand that places like Whole Foods and Wegmans and the high-end chains had to have in their portfolio, and people bought it because they thought it was the best, and they didn't care if it cost another 50 cents.
How has the brand evolved?
Reese: It seems like so many times, timing was everything. There was a company that was working on franchising ice cream shops, and they had blocked us for years from using the Vermont Creamery name. Then one day I was doing a search and lo and behold, they had let the Vermont Creamy name expire. So, I filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and secured that name. It was probably a half an hour drive to Montpelier, and I think I made it in 15 minutes to drop the check off before anybody else figured it out.
Another thing that happened was that when we started, French cheese was being imported, and the value of the French franc was 7.3 francs to the dollar, and we were very, very expensive because of the exchange rates. Then for some reason, the French franc dropped to about 4.6 francs to the dollar, and our phones just started to ring. It was like a tipping point. At first, we didn’t have enough milk to supply all the customers who were calling, but that gave us confidence that the demand was there, and we started to build out the milk supply. We went from one farm to two farms to five farms to 10 farms.
Hooper: We started with a very small group of a highly engaged customers. We didn’t have email yet, so everything was done via telex or fax or a typed letter. We were really working hard, customer by customer. But those relationships were very strong, and we never lost track of those important relationships. We didn’t overlook our local customers thinking that there was something better beyond Vermont and New England.
Bob and I were not boastful about the brand; we were just working hard and wanting to do the very best that we could for our customers. So, I think that we became a brand of a high level of integrity and humility. We were generous with finding talent and bringing it into the company and giving our employees a very long leash to develop their own careers.
Over time, as we went from small shops to natural markets like Whole Foods, they were also getting started while we were getting started, and we were all growing together. When conventional supermarkets wanted to have the same products that Whole Foods had, we started to sell in those places, but we always paid attention to the small independent shops and made sure that our portfolio of products had something for everyone. The small shops were our mouthpiece to consumers, and the larger chains were a convenient place where people could buy the products. People were happy that they could buy crème fraîche and goat cheese logs in any store where they shopped, and that was a great thing for our brand.