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Upstate's cartons milk Holstein motif

"What's 'moo' and improved?" asks Upstate Farms Cooperative. Its new Holstein-cow graphics, of course. The Leroy, NY-based dairy coop is using colorful spotted graphics and a "Taste Upstate Freshness" tagline to market 49 SKUs of new and existing milk and cream offerings sold in the refrigerated case.

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These include paperboard gabletops in 1/2-pt, 1-pt, 1-qt and 1/2-gal sizes, as well as plastic jugs in 1- and 1/2-gal sizes that use pressure-sensitive labels carrying the Holstein motif.

Marketing manager Mark Serling notes the 500-farm coop introduced the new graphics to select New York and Pennsylvania markets June 1, "to tie into National Dairy Month." Products are sold primarily to supermarkets, though customers also include convenience stores, as well as foodservice/institutional accounts.

"We wanted the products to have plenty of kid appeal," he says, "but we really wanted fun, contemporary graphics that would appeal to a large audience." Graphic design is credited to Forward Design (Rochester, NY). Cartons are printed flexographically in four colors by International Paper (Memphis, TN). Serling notes the cartons are "standard milk carton structures, the same as before, only with improvements in the graphics." Carton costs, he says, remain unchanged.

UFC, formerly Upstate Milk Cooperatives, processes, fills and distributes milk from centers in Buffalo, Rochester and Jamestown, NY. No new equipment was necessary for filling, Serling says.

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