Staple foods are not only systemically important, but they are also at a high risk of spoilage: dairy products are delicious, essential, and best left in the capable hands of Nagel-Group.
Not everyone likes their coffee black, and a sandwich is only half as exciting without butter. Now imagine life without milk, cheese, yoghurt, cottage cheese, and ice cream. Around 3.8 million cows in Germany provide 33 million tonnes of raw milk to the dairies every year. They use it to make 4.5 billion litres of safe-to-drink milk, enough to fill almost 2,000 Olympic swimming pools. On top of that, they produce 2.5 million tonnes of cheese, half a million tonnes of butter and cream, respectively, as well as large quantities of skimmed milk powder, dairy beverages, and much more.
The average German household consumes well over 100 kilograms of dairy products annually. However, those products must first get to the supermarket or discounter. A job for professionals. After all, everything hinges on a short shelf life and, consequently, tight scheduling of transport chains, which is where Nagel-Group comes into play. Their job is to organise fast processes, always taking into account that each product has to be kept at the right temperature anywhere and at any time.
Sometimes you need kid gloves, sometimes freezer gloves, and, often enough, both
“As a food logistics company, we routinely handle perishable goods. However, dairy products come with their own set of challenges,” says Christian Böhlke. He is the Munich branch manager and responsible for Southern Germany and Austria at Nagel-Group. Anyone who has ever left fresh milk out of the fridge for too long knows what he is talking about. Dairy products are quite demanding and can quickly turn sour under the wrong conditions. Temperature is the key. Camembert and Brie must be kept at +4 ℃ to +7 ℃, specific soft cheeses at +1 ℃, and ice cream at below freezing temperatures. A logistics provider has to keep track of all these variables. That is why Nagel-Group employees sometimes need kid gloves, sometimes freezer gloves, and often both.
Established in the industry for decades
Virtually every major producer in the dairy sector is a Nagel-Group customer. Distribution centres of food chains as well as individual supermarkets are served. Trucks take back empty returnable bottles straight away. The daily schedule also includes deliveries to clinics and schools – in compliance with stricter quality standards and fast delivery times. Nagel-Group complies with industry specifications along the entire transport chain, allowing it to gain a high reputation in the industry. In fact, partnerships with many producers and their trading partners have lasted for years and even decades.
Schweitenkirchen, for example
Proper storage requires the right warehouse structure. For example, consider the Schweitenkirchen site, 30 kilometres north of Munich, where Nagel-Group is currently expanding its capacities to include new frozen warehouses with 13,200 pallet spaces. It serves the Upper Bavarian and Austrian dairy markets. The site features a frost-free dry warehouse for canned goods, a chilled warehouse (+4 to +7 ℃), an ultra-fresh warehouse (0 to +4 ℃) and an additional 360-square-metre ripening room. Ice cream represents a separate subgroup of dairy products that must be continuously kept at minus 18 ℃ on its way from the producer to the supermarket freezer.
Nagel-Group continuously invests in the expansion of its infrastructure. The company has 130 sites in Europe for chilled and frozen logistics to ensure that healthy sources of protein and calcium are delivered fresh to consumers’ doors. In addition to Schweitenkirchen, the sites in Hamburg, Nuremberg, Radfeld (Tyrol), and Buxheim (Allgäu) are also currently being expanded, among others.
Value-added services for the dairy industry
Whether it’s fresh milk, UHT milk, cheese, yoghurt, cottage cheese or powdered milk – every dairy product passes through the warehouses and trucks of Nagel-Group. Employees label containers and tetra packs, pick promotional sets, and assemble displays for merchandising in the supermarket. Everything happens within the Nagel-Group’s network. Numerous dairies benefit from working with the same logistics service provider for milk, cheese, ice cream, and all other dairy products. This approach facilitates the organisation of transports and ensures streamlined processes at the ramp.
Andechser organic dairy plant: one of the largest organic dairy plants
One of the major players in the field of dairy products is the Andechser Molkerei Scheitz – which has been a Nagel-Group customer for more than 20 years. It is impossible to miss the famous organic producs in the dairy section of grocery stores. Milk, jogurt, quark… and many other products are an integral part of the diet of health-conscious people.
Prepared for seasonal highs
The Nagel-Group manages a large part of the distribution for Andechser via several logistics locations. The focus is on Germany.
In the course of a year, there are periods when many products do not even make it into the warehouse. Instead, they move directly from producers to supermarkets ‘via the Milky Way’. This is especially true during the Christmas period, when fresh cream or certain spreads are in high demand. Nagel-Group organises transports for customers independently of the standard network. In other words: Departure and delivery times are tailored to the individual needs of customers.
An additional requirement is to develop new logistics concepts for product innovations. “More and more consumers want to enjoy lactose-free dairy products. “We respond to such trends and are quite happy, of course, that Nagel-Group, as our Preferred Carrier, seamlessly integrates such products into their logistics and transport systems.”, says Veronika Pänzinger, Team Leader Order Management and Customer Logistics at Andechser Molkerei Scheitz.
Attending conventions regularly
The sales team of the Nagel-Group considers attending international dairy industry conferences a matter of personal commitment. The Dairy Congress in March 2023 focused primarily on sustainability and the goal of climate neutrality in the dairy industry. “This issue is right up our street,” says Böhlke. The Nagel-Group supports customers in reducing their CO2 footprint.” The Centre for Sustainable Leadership (ZNU) has already certified seven Nagel-Group sites for their ‘sustainable management’. Other branches will follow and make the switch to green electricity. Not only that, Nagel-Group is always looking for new ways to streamline transports even more efficiently. Christian Böhlke sums it up in a catchy formula: “We want the milk to be an energy supplier, not an energy guzzler.”