Dairy Processing - January/February 2023 - 28

We pride
ourselves
on our
innovation
successes
over our
almost 70
years of being
in business, "
Louie Gentine, chief
executive officer
Cheddar Natural Cheeses and Triscuit
Mini Original Crackers; Monterey
Jack and Mild Cheddar Natural
Cheeses and Wheat Thins Mini
Original Snacks; and Low Moisture
Mozzarella and Fontina Natural Cheeses
and Wheat Thins Mini Sundried Tomato &
Basil Flavored Snacks.
Sargento also recently acquired Wisconsinbased
Baker Cheese - one of the top producers
of string cheese in the US - which Gentine
said gives Sargento the opportunity to further
its position as " America's No. 1 natural
cheese brand. "
Sargento's current block offerings include
Fiesta Pepper Jack, Sharp Cheddar Jack, Extra
Sharp Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar and Mozzarella.
Beyond just the product, there's also
the process.
Top: Sargento's first
resealable package
debuted in 1986.
Bottom: Operations at
Sargento's Plymouth,
Wis. plant
McEvoy said the company always tries to
make decisions that impact the long term.
" What's been the recipe for success for
Sargento is managing and thinking further
ahead and thinking about the long term, " he
said. " Being family owned, we can do things
differently and take those chances, making sure
we are committed to the future. "
In terms of manufacturing, McEvoy said the
industry has seen many aspects evolve in the
past 15 to 20 years.
" We, along with a lot of our peers,
historically did things very manually in
our facilities. But Sargento started pushing
the boundaries on new products and new
innovations, " he said. " We had to think
differently in our plants to be able to maximize
our resources, maximize our investments, our
assets, and started looking at how we could
automate equipment and make process changes
better and more ergonomic for our employees. "
Doing things differently at the manufacturing
plant level has been the focus of McEvoy and his
team for the past 10 to 15 years.
" So that comes down to a lot more
automation and a lot more robotics, " he
explained. " Because of our family culture,
one thing that's important to us is we don't
lay people off because of automation. We find
them a new job with the company if we've
automated their current job. But our philosophy
has always been: you will always have a job as
we automate. "
Bringing forth a new product to
market comes down to the company's
stakeholder philosophy.
" We have very capable new product
engineers, but we have fostered strong
partnerships with our vendors and equipment
manufacturers to help design the production
lines that create the products Sargento develops
for the consumer, " McEvoy said.
Gentine said Sargento also works hard at
creating a culture of food safety and quality.
" One of our five key strategies is to never
compromise on food safety and quality, " he
said. " We instill across all channels of the
organization a tremendous focus on food
safety and quality, because of our values as
a company. "
28 JAN-FEB 2023 | DAIRYPROCESSING.COM
http://www.DAIRYPROCESSING.COM
Dairy Processing - January/February 2023

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