2011 September/October Issue - Land O'Lakes Inc.

As a testament to their hardwork and excellent customerservice, the Ingredientsteam was presented with theHershey’s Galaxy Award at theLand O’Lakes Annual Meetingin early March.In 2011, Land O’Lakes made a strategic decision to directly market milk powder as a branded, value-addedingredient to strategic customers.“First, we are following our strategic customersaround the globe. Companies likeNestle and Hershey who are focusing ondeveloping in the same parts of the worldto fuel their growth. The relationships weare building with them are allowing us togrow with them,” he said. “Our second approachis to target key, in-market companieswith leading positions in their respectiveregion that value our capabilities.”In less than a year since the company’sexit from DairyAmerica, the team hasmade excellent progress on their twoobjectives by building a customer basethat includes Nestle and Hershey, whilestrengthening financial results througha better customer product mix and improvedrisk management. Additionally,the team has accelerated a dialoguew i t h t h o s e c u s t o m e r s t o e stablishcommitments to supply product and towork toward value-added offerings.As a testament to their hard work and excellentcustomer service, the Ingredientsteam was presented with the Hershey’sGalaxy Award at the Land O’Lakes AnnualMeeting in early March. The award recognizesthe team’s outstanding work insuccessfully shipping product to Hersheyin China.“Winning the Hershey’s Galaxy Awardwas a significant accomplishment becauseit came from a very important customer,”Schmitz said. “It acknowledgesthe hard work put in by Land O’Lakes toservice Hershey at a very high level. Italso was a tangible demonstration of thetype of teamwork that the entire crossfunctionalteam has put into the milkpowders ‘go-it-alone’ initiative.”Although proud of their accomplishmentsto date, Schmitz said the teamis constantly looking for ways to continuedriving success and add value formembership.“Our goal is to leverage our successand accelerate the level of engagementwith our strategic customers,” Schmitzsaid. “This will involve high level, ‘topto-top’discussions around long-termpartnerships that focus on supplying avariety of dairy ingredients and valueaddedopportunities. It is not clear yetwhat those opportunities will be, but thediscussions are on-going.” !John Schmitz was recently promoted tovice president, Dairy Foods Ingredientsbusiness – a business with $1.5 billion inannual sales. He has a master’s degreefrom the Tuck School of Business atDartmouth and a bachelor’s degree inAccounting from the University of MinnesotaCarlson School of Management.Schmitz joined Land O’Lakes in 2007 andhas previously held the roles of director ofCorporate Strategy and Business Developmentand director of Marketing, DairyIngredients. Prior to joining Land O’Lakes,Schmitz held leadership roles with RedWing Shoes and General Mills, Inc.www.landolakesinc.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 27