Arla Foods has decided to relaunch its House of Castello cheese brand in a move that the company hopes will “reinvent” the cheese category.
Jesper Colding, senior vice president for Arla’s cheese business, said the company wants to make its cheeses available in more markets by “offering it in stronger and more distinct franchise, like Castello”.
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Colding told just-food that moves to sell cheese under House of Castello would be more effective in reaching new consumers, rather than introducing new cheeses individually market by market.
“Several smaller brands and individual SKUs will be migrated into the House of Castello brand. By this, we hope to achieve brand synergies and grow category value,” he said.
Colding explained that Castello had been targeted to a more adult consumer with a focus on mould cheeses, in particularly blue mould. A future range of products will feature a wide selection of premium cheeses including hard, semi hard, cream cheese and mould cheese.
A marketing campaign using TV, print sampling and online to support the relaunch has already kicked off in a number of overseas markets including Germany, Sweden and Denmark and is set to start in the UK this month. Colding said the UK was one of a number of “focus markets” where Arla had “identified category growth potential”.
Colding would not comment on how much money Arla would spend on the relaunch.
He also refused to disclose Castello’s sales last year but said the brand had seen a “double-digit increase” in revenues between 2009 and 2010.
