LONGUEUIL, QC, Aug. 20, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - Today marked one of the largest product launches in Canada as Ultima Foods, the Canadian leader in yogurt production and sales for 40 years, unveiled its own yogurt brand for the Canadian market: iögo.
More than 15 months of work and $70 million was dedicated to developing iögo, a success made possible by the hard work and determination of Ultima Foods employees and management. In a highly competitive environment like the Canadian yogurt market, creating a new brand is a tremendous challenge. For iögo, Ultima foods drew on 40 years of expertise and consumer insights to create a whole range of products that appeal to Canadian tastes.
iögo is a full range of yogurt and other dairy products consisting of seven product lines, each with its own distinctive attributes: iögo, iögo 0% (fat-free yogurt with only 35 calories/100 g), iögo Probio (probiotic yogurt with select lactose-free flavours), iögo Greko (Greek-style yogurt), iögo Nomad (drinkable yogurt), iögo Zip (yogurt in a tube) and iögo Nano (fresh cheese and drinkable yogurt for kids). And every iögo product—more than 40 flavors in total—is made without gelatine, colorant, or artificial flavors. iögo comes to market as more and more Canadian consumers are seeking out authentic flavors, simple ingredients, and products made in their home country. The unique new brand has plenty of distinctive features to guarantee it stands out on supermarket shelves.
Ultima Foods leveraged its know-how and innovation capacity to affirm its leadership in the industry. The company, which had sales of $330 million in 2011, allocated $60 million just to research and develop iögo and bring it to market. An additional $10 million was injected into its Granby facility to boost production capacity to meet new demand, with total production capacity increasing from 115 million kg to 130 million kg per year.
"Today is a proud day for all of us, including our 750 dedicated employees and our shareholders, Agropur and Agrifoods. There is a real feeling of a job well done, as we launch this new brand made and sold by Canadians," stated Ultima Foods president and CEO Gerry Doutre. "With substantial investment and the know-how, expertise, and unflagging hard work of our employees, Ultima Foods has created a new line of innovative yogurts that truly has something for everyone and every taste. iögo is bound to be a great success."
About Ultima Foods
For more than 40 years, Ultima Foods has been a Canadian leader in the manufacturing and marketing of yogurt and fresh dairy products. The company is headquartered in Longueuil (Québec) and has 750 employees across the country. It has world-class facilities and produces every year at its Granby plant more than 100 million kilos of fresh dairy products that are distributed across Canada. Having developed a veritable yogurt culture in the country, Ultima Foods makes products that are adapted to the tastes and expectations of Canadian consumers by investing in high standards of quality and innovation. It develops, manufactures and markets the iögo brand (www.iogo.ca). Aside from its brand, the company owns and operates Olympic-brand dairy products (www.olympicdairy.com). With the combined manufacturing of all those products, Ultima Foods, which is owned by the Agropur and Agrifoods dairy cooperatives, is a major player in the Canadian food industry.
For more information about Ultima Foods, visit www.ultimayog.ca or follow us on Facebook.
Image with caption: "Ultima Foods - the yogurt experts for more than 40 years - introduces its own national yogurt and fresh dairy product brand: iögo. Made in Canada and setting new industry standards, each iögo yogurt is free of gelatin, colours and artificial flavours. (CNW Group/Aliments Ultima) (CNW Group/Ultima Foods)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20120820_C8113_PHOTO_EN_16993.jpg
SOURCE: Ultima Foods
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