Müller focuses on innovative yoghurt: target 500 million pots in Italy

Don't call it flavoured milk. Müllermilch is rather a drinkable snack, a source of protein and vitamins, with low fat and no added sugar, aimed at Generation X. A good, healthy and globally successful drink (it is one of the group's best-performing corporate products) that the Müller Group is also launching in Italy. With a digital platform and a social campaign, starting with Tik Tok.

"We want to make it a hero product, as young people demand, and change the paradigms of the market, as has always been in our DNA," explains Sergio Attisani, general manager of Müller Italia, the group's third subsidiary by turnover, behind Germany and the UK. This is quite a gamble for a company that, since its arrival in Italy 30 years ago, has always remained within a single market, that of yoghurt, where today it has a 14% total volume share and aims to sell 500 million pots this year.

But just as in 1995 the public was made up of young people (women in particular) and the Müller yoghurt (which promised to 'make love to the taste') was an absolute novelty that revolutionised the market, so the company wants to do the same today with Müllermilch. "We need to address the new consumers, those who know us because they find us in their home fridge (the brand is present in more than half of the households that buy yoghurt, ed.) and therefore no longer feel the innovativeness - adds Attisani - And to win them over, we propose a product that is unrivalled on the Italian market and that responds to their preferences for healthy snacks, to be eaten on the go and on many different occasions, from gaming to school breaks".

Müllermilch marks another novelty for Müller: it is the first product sold in Italy that was not conceived and created in our country. 'The parent company leaves great autonomy to the national subsidiaries, and ever since we arrived in Verona, we have developed products, recipes and brands, such as Seta and Soffio, designed for Italian consumers. All real innovations, which in some cases have also been successful abroad,' Attisani emphasises.

In order to keep the promise of a 'wow effect', the company invests heavily in innovation to continuously renew its offer. The company now places great emphasis on kefir because it is the phenomenon of the moment and because it is the leading producer of it in Europe. In fact, the Müller Group thinks globally. And not only because of its size (21 plants, more than 33,000 employees and 9.3 billion in revenues, 5.9 billion of which in dairy products) but also because of its approach of total valorisation of the 1,700 tonnes of raw milk it processes each year, from which it also obtains raw materials and semi-finished products (such as whey protein and lactose) for other companies and obtains unbranded products.