Lactose free milk drink takes Valio by surprise
ValioThe hugely popular lactose free milk drink developed by Valio, Finland's leading dairy company, has brought about an all time biggest surprise in the Finnish dairy business. This lactose free product, which was brought to the consumers in year 2001, had been forecasted to reach sales of 1 million litres in its first year. Seven years later, in 2008 over 50 million litres of the lactose free product were sold in Finland alone.
The Finnish invention has also found its way to some of our neighbouring countries. It is stocked for instance on the shelves of supermarkets in Sweden, Estonia and Russia. In Central Europe it is sold in Belgium and France. The head of Product Development at Valio Ltd., Matti Harju, proudly notes that even some supermarkets in Paris now sell the lactose free product. Mr. Harju is known as the "grandfather" of the lactose free dairy drink. He has been involved in dairy product development for nearly 40 years. He is a chemist, and was the one to invent the method of separating lactose from milk, which he also patented.
During his long career with dairy products Matti Harju never saw an equally popular innovation such as the lactose free milk drink. It has truly revolutionized the dairy markets and now constitutes a fifth of Valio's turnover.
Lactose intolerance has been a difficult issue for world's dairy companies and overt publicity on it has been avoided. Finland however has an excellent position for being a forerunner on lactose free dairy production since Finland's use of milk is more than that of any other country. The Finnish people's annual consumption of milk is over twice the amount of the European average.
