Stable turnover conceals shifts at DMK

There's plenty going on underneath. What does fluctuate, for example, is the payment to members. In 2022, the cooperative company in Germany paid a clearly above-average milk price, and this in a year with extremely high average milk prices. DMK, which often struggled to keep up with the milk price, had improved itself. However, last year the company fell back again. CEO Ingo Müller apologized and promised improvement during the presentation of the annual figures.  
That was not a superfluous gesture, because DMK has a long history of below-average milk prices. In addition, a volume of 700 million kilos of milk has been canceled since the beginning of this year and reportedly also a strong volume at related companies, such as DOC Germany. In recent years, many members have left DMK in Germany. However, DMK says it is well on its way to achieving a competitive milk price again this year. "The advantage compared to 2023 is that we are now in a completely different starting situation, because we have now earned the money for the milk prices."

Member loss
According to the latest annual report, DMK still has 3.872 members in Germany, plus eleven affiliated supplier clubs, a shadow of the 11.000 members when the company was founded in 2012.
DMK has 653 members at sister organization DOC Kaas. A year earlier, DMK said it had about 4.100 members in Germany and about 600 at DOC Kaas.

Mlekoma Dairy
This also indicates that the importance of DOC Cheese in DMK is increasing and the balance is shifting. In addition to the Netherlands, Poland is also becoming more important for DMK. The company already had a 51% interest in the sales organization of private processor Mlekoma Dairy. DMK now also wants to acquire the remaining 49% of the shares, but is still waiting for approval from the competition authorities. Mlekoma's two factories in central Poland will remain in the hands of parent company Sadafco. These factories together produce around 42.000 tons of dairy products, mainly powders. DMK wants to use the full takeover of Mlekoma's sales organization to further shape the company's 2030 food service and retail strategy. The focus is on the further rollout of Milram in Poland.
DMK also retains companies in Russia, but has not invested in them in recent years.

Cheese more important
What else is changing at DMK is the product package. Cheese in particular is becoming increasingly important to the company. DMK is the largest cheese producer in Germany and strong in, among other things, foil cheese and mozzarella. No precise figures are yet known for 2023, but in 2022 cheese generated €2,2 billion in turnover out of a total of €5,5 billion. In 2021, cheese only had a share of €1,9 billion. Cheese is therefore becoming increasingly important, although the high cheese prices in 2022 also played a role.

In addition, DMK converts approximately €1 billion into fresh and long-life dairy. This segment has always been one of the weaker links at DMK, with a low return, but apparently indispensable in the product package.
In 2022 it also converted approximately €140 million into ice cream, but the company actually wants to get rid of that, just as the Belgian Milcobel is trying to get rid of its ice cream division Ysco. DMK has already implemented numerous reorganizations in the ice cream division, but it has not been possible to make this profitable. Selling seems best. The problem is finding buyers. However, that is an ice-wide problem.