Less than a year has passed since Belje took over the Osijek dairy, making ambitious plans to create a new brand and develop its dairy range. Within a hundred days, the company signed agreements to continue its cooperation with 249 subcontractors, and designed the Kravica Kraljica brand, launching the first products made of 100% Croatian milk to the market. The first results show that Kravica Kraljica was spectacularly accepted by consumers, becoming the fastest-growing brand in Croatia in 2021.
According to a consumer poll by GfK Croatia, Kravica Kraljica achieved an unprecedented success in the market within six months of its launch, reaching a penetration rate of 22%. “The success of Kravica Kraljica is even greater if we consider that it is an entirely new brand, launched earlier this year, and that it has made its way to every fifth Croatian household in only six months, which makes it the absolute winner among the analysed brands”, GfK Croatia said.
In a matter of months, Kravica Kraljica was embraced by Croatian moms, who picked the Kravica Kraljica long-life milk as their favourite in the best-selling market category of dairy products, presenting it with an “Odabrale mame” (Picked by Moms) label. They were attracted by the modern design, catchy name and the innovative marketing campaign that quickly caught on in the entire population, they explained. This is confirmed by GfK’s survey, which showed that the brand has buyers across Croatia, with and above-average share of pensioners on the one hand and families with small children on the other.
“As we said at the beginning of our investment in the Osijek dairy, Belje has been the largest milk producer in Croatia for many years, and it was logical to market our own milk through local dairy products. Looking back at this past year, I can proudly say that our ambition has been an absolute success. Consumers have recognised and rewarded the hard work our employees and subcontractors put in at the farms every day, and the high quality of the products created by the Osijek dairy employees. We locally produce 58 million litres of milk a year, the basis for our production of the Kravica Kraljica range and the ABC cream cheese. We were aware of the tremendous importance of investing in milk production for the self-sufficiency of domestic production, and we are happy that the consumers have chosen our brand, because we guarantee the traceability of our entire production, from the farm to the final product on the supermarket shelf”, said Andrej Dean, President of the Management Board of Belje plus.
“We invested a huge effort to launch the Kravica Kraljica products in a very short time and design a marketing campaign that would appeal to all consumer categories, since these are products that we consume on a daily basis. We are happy because we have been chosen by consumers who are guided by quality, understand the value of local production, and prefer to buy Croatian products. The support of the ‘Odabrale mame’ project is also hugely important to us, because moms pick products for their whole families, steering their children towards products that they themselves trust. This helps us build a new generation of young consumers who will have grown up with Kravica Kraljica”, said Hrvoje Radoš, Sales and Marketing Director at Belje plus.
Belje has also made a major breakthrough in environmental protection with the new brand, something that is becoming an increasingly important concern for many consumers. Kravica Kraljica fresh and long-life milk is the only milk in Croatia packaged in a carton made of 82% plant-based materials (sugarcane-based cardboard and plastic), reducing the carbon footprint of the packaging by 18%.