Beston has maintained strong cheese sales with repeat business bolstering the numbers

Adelaide’s Beston food company is maintaining its cheese sales at a high level due to a new strategy.

BESTON Global Food Company is consistently selling more than 500 metric tonnes of mozzarella per month, with repeat customers playing a big part.

The SA diversified food company said it had made “significant gains in new business, at attractive margins ... over the past five months in both the retail and food service sectors’’.

“Growth has been achieved through growing relationships with existing customers and by adding new accounts.’’

Beston said production had been ramped up in May last year to 500 tonnes, with 30 per cent of that underpinned by a contract to one large Australian company.

Until recently, the balance had been sold to food service companies on an introductory trial basis and into the spot market.

Packing mozzarella at the Beston cheese factory.

“Over the last five months the pattern of sales has bedded down such that it is now virtually all committed to repeat customers’’.

Chief executive Jonathan Hicks said the company had swapped out agents for its own sales team in all mainland states, which created better relationships with customers.

Mr Hicks said the growth in repeatable sales was leading to better capacity utilisation and overhead recoveries.

The company said it had also discontinued work on a possible merger of a subsidiary with technology company Data Dot. Beston shares closed 0.5c higher at 12c.