With new warehouse, DOC Kaas closes the cheese chain

The company reported this in a message following a decision by the municipality of Hoogeveen. This will allow the construction of the warehouse to begin. There is already a ripening warehouse for naturally matured cheese at the Dairy Park, but a second one will be added. The new warehouse will be fully automated and will have a storage capacity of more than 2.000 tons of naturally matured cheese. 

Construction will start in March. The warehouse is scheduled to be fully operational in the third quarter of 2026. From then on, approximately 25 million kilos of naturally matured cheese will enter the market via the new building each year. 

Frans Vlaar, COO of the Industry business unit at the DMK Group, says in a press release: "With the construction of the new ripening warehouse, we are taking an important next step in our cheese strategy and are not only strengthening our position on the cheese market, but are also investing sustainably in our second home market, the Netherlands. With this decision, DMK is also sending a clear signal to the retail sector to participate in the market as an attractive supplier with its ripened natural products. This benefits all parties: company, location, customers and consumers." 

Less transport, better ripening
According to DOC Kaas, the new building offers several advantages: maturing in-house makes the entire process considerably more efficient. The result is shorter lead times, more compact logistics and lower costs because external maturing is no longer necessary. The latter also helps to make the production chain more sustainable, because intermediate transport is no longer necessary and CO2 emissions can be reduced.

The new warehouse also benefits the quality of the cheese, as fewer work processes affect the ripening conditions, making it even easier to achieve consistent quality. The construction also helps the region, as the new ripening warehouse creates new jobs at the Hoogeveen location.