The challenge
The distributor's chef customers wanted authentic Greek strained yoghurt and PDO feta in true food-service formats: bulk pails, brine-preserved feta wheels, portioned yoghurt for buffet service. The retail formats they had been buying were expensive per kilo, generated too much packaging waste and did not survive their cold-chain rotation reliably.
They also needed producers who could deliver on a predictable monthly cadence, because hotel menu planning does not tolerate substitution.
Our approach
We selected a dairy already producing food-service formats for its domestic HoReCa channel, which meant the equipment, the specifications and the audit history were in place. That removed most of the development risk.
The yoghurt was standardised on two pail sizes and one portioned format. The feta was standardised on wheels and pre-cut blocks in brine. Chefs from three hotel groups tested both against their current suppliers over a four-week trial before final commitment.
Cold-chain was planned around a monthly reefer delivery timed to the distributor's warehouse cycle. Documentation was prepared for their HACCP and quality system in advance.
The outcome
The new formats replaced the retail-pack workaround entirely. Chefs got the authenticity they wanted, the distributor got a cost per kilo that made sense for buffet service, and the monthly cadence became the anchor around which additional Greek dairy lines were later added.
The partnership also gave the distributor a credible Greek dairy story to lead with when pitching new hotel accounts.
