“We’re pretty excited about it,” said Chad Mann, ADL’s CEO. “It’s the first time our Dairy Isle brand will be available coast-to-coast to consumers.”
Six evaporated milk products will be carried nationwide by Walmart: regular, low fat, fat free, sweetened condensed milk, low fat sweetened condensed milk, and a new product – dulce de leche. Some of the products have a map of P.E.I. on top of the can, he said.
The condensed milk products are made at the company’s Fitzroy Street plant in Charlottetown. At that facility, about 99.5 per cent of products are exported off-Island, and in the past, have mostly been in someone else’s brand and label, Mann said.
“It’s going to be the first time there’s actually a brand coming out of that plant that is owned by farmers here on P.E.I., being sold coast-to-coast.”
Evaporated milk, as with other products found in the baking section of grocery stores, has seen increased demand since COVID-19 and more people working and cooking from home.
“We have seen an uptick in volumes, which again translates into our dairy producers producing more milk, our truck drivers delivering more milk, more milk going through our plants, and more sales. So, we have seen an uptick on the retail level, which is good news,” he said.
The arrangement with Walmart was launched earlier this fall, so it is still relatively new.
“It’s too early to say where this brand volume will go,” he said. “We’d like to see success in the marketplace long-term. It’s not an easy market out there.”
Mann explained a reason behind the creation of the Dairy Isle brand four years ago was to help consumers off-Island identify a P.E.I. and Canadian-made product, especially as trade agreements were allowing more foreign dairy products in the marketplace.
ADL was founded in 1953 and has its head office in Summerside. The company has about 300 employees and five plants.
“It’s hard to go anywhere without seeing ADL, but once you move off the Island, that marketing message is not there. So, we needed a different vehicle in order to find a place on the shelf, and we feel that Dairy Isle is working so far for us,” he said.
“Again, we launched it in 2016. It was a bold move for a small regional processor to introduce a new brand in the marketplace. We started with cheese, went to butter, and now we’ve gone to evaporated milk. And, this opportunity with Walmart seems to fit nicely with our brand strategy on this new line.”
