Valuable player
Josef Vögele first learned to make cheese back in 1974 and he’s been fascinated by the process ever since. Fast-forward about ten years and he was heading up the technical department at a dairy plant with 70 production staff. And in 2012, he took on the role of Managing Director at Milchwerk Crailsheim-Dinkelsbühl.
Today, the company annually processes around 150,000 tons of raw milk from cooperative suppliers, producing some 21,000 tons of cheese: Balkan cheese, pasta filata cheese (kashkaval), and grill cheese.
"My team and I had a goal: to prove that we had what it takes to be a valuable player in the dairy market. So, we worked hard on growing our milk intake capacity and increasing our cheese production capacity.”
Josef Vögele
Managing Director
Milchwerk Crailsheim-Dinkelsbühl
In GEA, we found a partner who understood our goals and has delivered what we need to ensure that our company will thrive for many years to come, and in a sustainable way.
Josef Vögele
Managing Director, Milchwerk Crailsheim-Dinkelsbühl
Modernizing for the next chapter
Faced with the need for a substantial upgrade in 2019, as much of the equipment dated back to the 1980s and 1990s, Milchwerk Crailsheim-Dinkelsbühl invested around 5 million Euros to modernize its plant. The project focused on three key areas: hygiene, automation, and operational performance. Throughout this transformation, GEA proved to be a trusted partner, combining industry expertise with tailored solutions that support the company's long-term production objectives.
Hygiene, automation, and digitalization
Josef emphasizes the importance of automation in supporting hygiene standards and minimizing the potential for errors in the cheese production process. GEA's Codex® Plant Playback monitoring solution became a valuable tool for the team, enabling operators to observe and analyze plant behavior in real time. The collaboration with GEA extended beyond technical support and developed into a close partnership, with both teams working together to evaluate options and make informed decisions for the plant's ongoing development.
Bernhard Tasser, Regional Sales Manager at GEA, highlights several project outcomes, including increasing the pasteurizer's capacity to 45,000 liters of milk per hour and upgrading the raw milk valve cluster for optimized product handling. The introduction of two water circuits in the cream pasteurizer is another example of how GEA tailored the process design to support product characteristics and meet specific production requirements.
Sparring partners
Reflecting on the journey, Josef expresses confidence in the decisions made and the ongoing reliance on GEA's expertise. The relationship with GEA transcends a mere supplier-customer dynamic; it's a collaborative partnership that ensures Milchwerk Crailsheim-Dinkelsbühl's position as a valuable player in the dairy market for years to come.
