Thesgala: A Greek Cooperative For Direct Milk Sales

Background and History

There are some farmers in Greece who have formed a small co-operative for selling the milk directly to the consumers of Greece by cutting down the middleman who increase the prices. One of such example is Thes Gala. It is a milk producing cooperative company operating in Greece, Southern Europe. It was set up in the year 2011 from a group of milk producing farmers. It began installing the machines of milk vending in Larissa in the year 2013 and there they have new sixteen outlets and thereafter, extended to the Thessaloniki in the year 2017 with seventeen outlets. Soon it became the first standard productive cooperative in Greece (“Ec.europa.eu”, 2019). It at present have about 45 different dairy farms with about 110 dairy cows in every farm that produce over 120 tons of milk every day. In Greece, it accounts for 10% of the total milk production. Hence, the company runs in huge profit. With the same, about 40$ of the milk is sold by the company’s vending machine. The company is based in Greek only and is still not expanded itself to new regions.  It is to note that THESgala is one of the most significant example of innovative marketing that do not have any intermediaries. It sells milk through the automatic milk vending machine and every day, it offer pasteurised and fresh milk that are collected by the farms that are owned by the members of THESgala.

1. a) Product- Thesgala was the first ever company to provide fresh milk through vending machine to the customers at the neighbours of Larissa, Athens and Thessaloniki. It provides Fresh, Quality Milk and Pasteurized milk every day. It is also to mention that the milks are supplied by the company directly to the consumers from the producers (“Ec.europa.eu”, 2019).
2. b) Price- Thesgala seeks for defending the interests of all its members along with the provision of top quality milk to the customers at very fair prices. The company pursue the goal of producing sustainable milk by ensuring high quality milk, reducing the costs of production, improving the level of management of every units, increasing the productivity of livestock and developing synergies all over the spectrum over the primary sectors (Serra, 2016). It is also to note that the milk goes straight to the customers from the producers and this minimises the costs of intermediary and packaging. Hence, customers get top quality product at cheap prices.
3. c) Place- Thesgala distribute its products through its several different outlets present throughout Greece. It is to note that the company at present has a total of sixty three outlets in three different cities namely Larissa, Athens and Thessaloniki. It provide milk to the customers through these outlets.
4. d) Promotion- Thesgala promote its business through newspaper articles and television advertisements. It also makes use of billboards and posters for the same.

1. Age Group- Thesgala segments people from all different age groups and demography. It does not differentiate in its customers and at the same time, makes use of mass marketing principle as well. However, the target audience are always the regular middle class people.
2. Income- As the price of the milk product of Thesgala are too low, therefore, it can be afforded by each and every people. However, the company usually targets the middle class families and the higher ones whose income level is 700 euros and above (monthly).
3. Gender- Both male and female population are targeted by the brand.

 Selling milk directly to the consumers of Greece by cutting down the middleman who increase the prices by means of co-operative have now become a real innovative and successful scheme in Greece. Milk farmers in Greece have been getting really creative now-a-days. They now sell their milk from the vending machines where the customers normally expect to see fizzy drinks and snacks. Apart from Thesgala or Want Milk, there is none in this is area to supply milk in this process. The scheme has been very successful and customers are finding it way for convenient and pocket friendly.  Some of the very common milk supplying brand in Greece are FAGE, NoyNoy etc. A brief competitive analysis of these three brands (Thesgala, FAGE, and NoyNoy) are presented below:

1. a) Market share of age groups in Greece- In the year 2017, more than 14.21% of the population of Greece fall into the category of 0-14 year and other 65.39% fall into the age group of 15 to 64 years (Caroleo et al., 2017). Finally, the remaining 20.4% were more than 65 Years of age.   

1. b) Market share of family income in Greece- According to the recent report by Serra (2016), in Greece, the average household total adjusted disposable income per capital is 17002 USD per year, which is comparatively lower than the OECD average of 30563 USD. The total household consumption is 73.3%. With the same, the total household income or the consumption by the share of percentage is 1.7% (lowest) and 26.7% (highest). Furthermore, as per Greece Youth Unemployment Rate (2019), the rate of unemployment in Greece has increased to 39.50% in 2019 from 39.10 in 2018. 

1. c) Market share of population in terms of gender in Greece- In the year 2016, there were a total of 10.78 million people living in Greece (Shamshirgaran et al., 2016). Among them, 5.56 million were the female inhabitants and the remaining were males. It is also to note that there were less than 5.3 million males in Greece in that year as compared to the last year.

The intended audiences of Thesgala are the common public, belong from all age group and different income level. It does not differentiate in its customers and at the same time, makes use of mass marketing principle as well. However, the target audience are always the regular middle class people.

1. Product- It provides Fresh, Quality Milk and Pasteurized milk every day. It is also to mention that the milks are supplied by the company directly to the consumers from the producers. Thesgala was the first ever company to provide fresh milk through vending machine to the customers at the neighbours of Larissa, Athens and Thessaloniki. It is also to mention that the company focuses more on its product design, quality, models, appearance, features and packaging.
2. Price- Thesgela formed a small co-operative for selling the milk directly to the consumers of Greece by cutting down the middleman who increase the prices. The company seeks for defending the interests of all its members along with the provision of top quality milk to the customers at very fair prices. The company pursue the goal of producing sustainable milk by ensuring high quality milk, reducing the costs of production, improving the level of management of every units, increasing the productivity of livestock and developing synergies all over the spectrum over the primary sectors (Serra, 2016). Customers get top quality product at cheap prices. Also, as the price of the milk product of Thesgala are too low, therefore, it can be afforded by each and every people.
3. Place- Thesgala choose its location of the outlets, the physical distribution and the warehouse as per the number of people in that particular area. It advertise its services and products offline by making billboards, posters, television advertisements and newspaper articles etc.
4. Promotion- Thesgala performs its advertisement through newspaper articles, billboards, posters and television advertisements. It promotes its services in order to develop attraction of the consumers of Greece. It also has cash and carry outlets as well.

1. Content platform- The main content delivery platforms that Thesgala uses for delivery of its contents are online websites, Blog writings, newspaper article writings, social media platform. Here, the company markets all its contents.
2. Key promises- Thesgala pursue the goal of producing sustainable milk by ensuring high quality milk, reducing the costs of production, improving the level of management of every units, increasing the productivity of livestock and developing synergies all over the spectrum over the primary sectors. It is also to note that the milk goes straight to the customers from the producers and this minimises the costs of intermediary and packaging. Hence, customers get top quality product at cheap prices
3. Creative proposition- The significant creative proposition of Thesgala is its vending machine. It is very unique, innovative, convenient, pocket friendly and the fastest means of getting milk for common man’s consumption. Anyone can afford to have milk at any time. It is available for 24 hours. It is completely hassle free and innovative.
4. Message strategy- The Company claims “It is a difficult time for dairy farmers but by selling the milk in this way, we can improve our profits and revenue.” Moreover, as per Starter.coop. (2019), “The competitive advantage of the milk vending machines is that they offer consumers fresh, high quality milk in the fastest and most convenient way”.

Conclusion 

Hence, from the above analysis it is to conclude that Thesgala is one of the most innovative and creative milk supplying brand in Greece. It sells the milk directly to the consumers of Greece through vending machines and that too, by cutting down the middleman who increase the prices and hence, supply the milk at lower price to the customers. It makes use of online websites, Blog writings, newspaper article writings, social media platform to delivery its contents. It defends the interests of all its members along with the provision of top quality milk to the customers at very fair prices. It performs its advertisement through newspaper articles, billboards, posters and television advertisements. It promotes its services in order to develop attraction of the consumers of Greece. The company pursue the goal of producing sustainable milk by ensuring high quality milk, reducing the costs of production, improving the level of management of every units, increasing the productivity of livestock and developing synergies all over the spectrum over the primary sectors

References:

“Greece Youth Unemployment Rate | 2019 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast.” Tradingeconomics.com. N.p., 2019. Web. 29 Mar. 2019.

Caroleo, F. E., Demidova, O., Marelli, E., & Signorelli, M. (2017). Youth unemployment and the transition from school to work in Germany and Greece HANS DIETRICH, ANNIE TUBADjI, BRIgITTE SCHELS. In Young People and the Labour Market (pp. 137-167).

Ec.europa.eu. (2019). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/sites/agri-eip/files/2018-press_201802-thesgala_final.pdf 

Pucciarelli, F., & Kaplan, A. (2016). Competition and strategy in higher education: Managing complexity and uncertainty. Business Horizons, 59(3), 311-320.

Serra, A. (2016). Households: Trends and Perspectives. In Energy Performance of Buildings (pp. 167-202). Springer, Cham.

Shamshirgaran, S. M., Ataei, J., Alamdari, M. I., Safaeian, A., & Aminisani, N. (2016). Predictors of health-related quality of life among people with type II diabetes Mellitus in Ardabil, Northwest of Iran, 2014. primary care diabetes, 10(4), 244-250.

Starter.coop. (2019). Retrieved from https://starter.coop/wp/success-stories-greece/