Guggisberg Cheese and Strauss Feeds: Partners in World-Class Quality
It’s a tale of two companies that have such similar history and values, one might think we are all from the same family.
Actually, we’re two companies, rising from two families, who share one founding principle – a fastidious commitment to superior quality that underscores everything we touch and every relationship we have, from our customers and employees to our suppliers and communities.
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Guggisberg Cheese is a primary supplier of condensed whey, a co-product of cheese making that contributes a significant portion of protein to our animal milk replacers. Six days a week, tanker trucks make the 230-mile voyage from Guggisberg’s plants in northeast Ohio to deliver concentrated liquid whey to our plant in North Manchester, Indiana. Strauss Feeds is the sole purchaser of condensed whey from Guggisberg Cheese, amounting to more than 7,000 tons of product (on a dry-matter basis) per year.
It’s a business relationship that spans more than two decades, starting in the late 1990s, when both companies were in a strong growth phase. Now, more than 20 years later, Strauss Feeds continues to receive a consistent supply of high-quality milk-replacer ingredients, while Guggisberg Cheese benefits from a steady outlet for its co-products.
Fans of Baby Swiss cheese (and who isn’t a fan of this creamy, tasty delicacy?!), will be interested in knowing that the variety was founded by Guggisberg Cheese. When company founder Alfred Guggisberg emigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1947, the expert cheesemaker set out to develop a milder form of Swiss cheese to satisfy the less-developed palates of American consumers. Upon observing the smaller eyes and miniature wheel size of the new creation, his wife, Margaret exclaimed, “Look, it’s Baby Swiss!”
Baby Swiss now is an officially recognized cheese variety and a household name in the U.S. and abroad. But Guggisberg Cheese always will be home to the Original Baby Swiss. It’s a fact in which they take such pride that even their company website address is www.babyswiss.com.
The lucky calves and other baby animals that consume Guggisberg’s whey in our milk replacers are treated to a high-quality manufacturing co-product of some of the world’s finest cheeses. In addition to Baby Swiss and traditional Emmental Swiss, Guggisberg Cheese specializes in other Swiss-based varieties, including Amish Butter Cheese, Farmers Cheese, Premium Swiss, Lacerne, and Vintage Select Aged Swiss. Richard Guggisberg, Alfred and Margaret’s son who is now the company’s president and general operations manager, has lead the company to a level of worldwide notoriety.
“Absolutely no component of the milk we purchase is wasted,” shared Richard Guggisberg. “All of the elements have value, and are utilized in various forms of human and animal nutrition.”
At the 2019 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, Guggisberg Cheese was awarded the crowning glory of Grand Champion Cheese among all varieties with its Baby Swiss, besting 2,555 entries from 35 states. It’s an honor the company earned once before in 2015 with its Premium Swiss. The U.S. competition is held every two years, alternating with the World Championship Cheese Competition. At the 2020 World event, Guggisberg Cheese achieved high honors in both the Swiss and Baby Swiss categories, finishing second in both varieties by a fraction of a point to Switzerland.
Producing 100,000 pounds of cheese per day or 27 million pounds per year, Guggisberg Cheese is one of the largest manufacturers of Swiss cheese in the United States. All of the 300 million pounds of milk used to manufacture the cheese is sourced from about 200 local dairy farms in and around their base in Holmes County, Ohio, home of the world’s largest Amish community. The Guggisbergs attribute their cheeses’ exquisite taste to the region’s unique terrain upon which the cows graze. Glacial mineral deposits there produce soil and grass similar to that of the Swiss Alps, where Alfred Guggisberg initially studied as a cheesemaker.
Guggisberg Cheese proudly shares a story of sustainability similar to that of Strauss Feeds. “Absolutely no component of the milk we purchase is wasted,” shared Richard Guggisberg. “All of the elements have value, and are utilized in various forms of human and animal nutrition.” Their sustainability circles even intersect a bit, as some of the whey supplied by Guggisberg and used to manufacture Strauss milk replacers finds its way back to dairy herds in Holmes County. It helps raise the next generation of herd replacements that will continue to supply milk for Guggisberg Cheese.
Family also is a central value to the two companies, as both Guggisberg Cheese and Strauss Feeds are multiple-generation family businesses. Richard Guggisberg’s daughter, Ursula Guggisberg-Bennett, is the company’s marketing coordinator. Her husband, Kyle Bennett, is the head cheesemaker at the company’s largest plant in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Meanwhile, her sister’s husband, Mike Womacks, is general manager of the company’s original plant in Millersburg, Ohio.
Richard Guggisberg and his daughter Ursula Guggisberg-Bennet posing with their winning cheese.
And like Strauss Feeds, Guggisberg Cheese respects its heritage while concurrently embracing its future. The company recently completed a state-of-the-art upgrade and addition to its Sugarcreek plant, and next hopes to expand its Millersburg retail space. And of course, they will continue to pursue the elusive World Championship for Swiss and Baby Swiss cheeses. “We don’t feel too bad finishing second to Switzerland, because they have hundreds more years of experience, and that’s where our roots are, too,” said Guggisberg-Bennett. “We’ll keep trying, but for now, we don’t mind being ‘second to one!’”