In the increasingly trendy and ever‑moving beverage market, Neenah‑based Galloway Company is finding a space for dairy to play its part.
Crème liqueurs used to just include the “brown flavors” like coffee, caramel and chocolate, says Luke Gambaro, Galloway’s director of beverage sales. But recently, Gambaro says, “we’ve seen a big boom in flavored crème liqueur.”
Couple the crème liqueur boom with the surging popularity of fruit-flavored alcoholic beverages and you have the impetus behind Galloway Company’s latest product innovation: an acidified crème liqueur base.
Alcohol and acid are both “stressors” of dairy that cause it to curdle, explains Diego Benitez, Galloway’s senior director of research and development, who began working this summer on the innovation that was recently named a finalist in the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) Innovation Showcase. Mixing one or the other with dairy has been possible before, but this is the first time all three can play together nicely through a proprietary protein stabilization process, resulting in possibilities like a key lime pie or Creamsicle flavored liqueur, Gambaro says.
“There are only two companies in the United States that produce crème liqueurs,” he says. “So if we aren’t pushing the boundaries of innovation, really nobody else will.”
The next step for Galloway is educating the market and finding the right customer for the innovation. Across all categories, the company doesn’t produce any of its own products and instead serves as a bulk supplier to brands huge and small.
“I think there’s tremendous potential for the beverage category at Galloway,” Gambaro says. “One thing in particular that we’re looking a lot at is functional beverages — protein, fiber, better-for-you sodas. We have different dairy elements that can work with these.”
Gambaro also says ready‑to-drink or canned cocktails and energy drinks are exploding categories where the innovation can be useful, but keeping an eye on trends is more important today than ever.
The beverage trend cycle has sped up from about 8 to 10 years to around 2 to 3 years, Benitez says.
“It has become a need for ‘innovate or perish,’ because things are changing so fast,” he explains. “Especially for a company like Galloway that is a B2B provider of ingredients, if we’re not staying ahead of the curve two steps, the business is impacted.”
Galloway Company is in the midst of a major facilities expansion; installation of a second evaporator has doubled its capacity specifically for industrial sweetened condensed milk, but Gambaro says all facets of capital expansion lift up every division of the business as the company is bringing in more milk and sugar than ever.
“We definitely know our roots and have to balance staying true to our roots and driving innovation at the same time,” Gambaro says. “So how can we continue to evolve but not lose our core essence of who we are?”
The Galloway family began dairy farming in Northeast Wisconsin in the 1800s, and since 1956 the family has owned and operated Galloway Company in Neenah making dairy ingredients. Today it is the nation’s leading bulk supplier of industrial sweetened condensed milk and crème liqueur bases — and growing.
Galloway is sponsoring A Very Neenah Christmas Market — the Fox Cities’ first European‑style holiday market — Dec. 5-7, which will be a rare opportunity to taste Galloway eggnog straight from the company’s headquarters.
On a special Thanksgiving episode of the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast, fourth‑generation family business leader Annika Galloway, director of communications and public relations, shared the history of the company, why and how it is growing, and why the Neenah community is so important to her family. Listen to the full episode (Episode 101, released Nov. 20) at insightonbusiness.com/podcasts.
