Kit Davies Normandy France's Isigny-Sainte-Mère has declared its ambition to become the leading supplier in the premium dairy product niche in Britain. The Normandy co-operative has boosted its UK sales and marketing team to seven personnel in a bid to gain full coverage in multiples and independents via wholesalers. Isigny-Sainte-Mère has enjoyed double digit growth in its exports in the last few years with the UK a particularly strong performer. It supplies a number of premium private labels to major UK multiples as well as a complete range of its own brand. The range includes butter, soft ripened cheese (Camembert AOC, Pont L'Evêque AOC and Coulommiers), crème fraîche, fromage frais, and Mimolette (see left). Export sales director Marc Chiron said the cooperative unashamedly claimed to produce "the finest butter in the world", and had as its target people who were knowledgeable about food. Current sales were benefiting from the backlash against foot and mouth, he said, with many consumers finding renewed appeal in top quality products backed not only by robust traceability and quality controls, but also by the AOC designations and "terroir". "The future lies in quality systems. And we give time to products to give them full maturation," said Chiron. "People are really after something specific, with a lot of flavour and history. And we want them to be consumed by the quality of our products. Getting consumers to taste them is the secret to growing sales. And we need to explain much more the quality of what we are doing." {{CANNED GOODS }}

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