Alois Mueller, Germany's biggest dairy group with a 13.8 per cent share of the market, launched a number of new products at last week's InterMopro dairy show in Duesseldorf, which served as a showcase for many German dairy groups and highlighted the increasing levels of innovation in the dairy sector.
With Peppo, Mueller claimed that it was in fact creating an entirely new category of product. The ready-to-eat snack is a combination of creamy yoghurt and herbs, vegetables or croutons, and has been created by Mueller to fill what it claims is a definite gap in the market - most similar products are sweet rather than savoury.
The snack will be available from January 2003 in supermarkets throughout Germany, and comes in six different flavours, including herbes de Provence, mini baguettes, red and green pepper, Italian tomato and crostini with basil.
Each 80g pot will sell for €0.49, and the launch will be supported by a major advertising campaign.
But while Mueller might claim that Peppo was the most innovative product it was presenting at the show, it was certainly not the only one.
The Froop brand of yoghurt comes in two different formats - traditional pots and the more modern drinking yoghurt - and was launched in August. The yoghurt is said to have an intense fruity flavour and the drinking yoghurt variant comes in a bottle designed for easy holding with bright, fruity colours.
The creamy yoghurts contain two layers of pureed fruit, and are an extension of the Froop Fruit brand launched in April this year.
The other product highlighted by Mueller at the show was Crema, an Italian-style yoghurt which was first launched in 2001. The new variants introduced at InterMopro include an amaretto yoghurt and a capuccino-flavoured cream pudding, which join the existing flavours such as tiramisu.