Goat Cheese in the Mid-West: A Family Business in Transition

Abstract

The cheese industry is highly competitive with a few large companies dominating the market. The artesian segment of the industry is highly fragmented with several companies producing high quality, differentiated cheese products marketed to niche markets and high-end customers. Prairie Farms is a farmstead company producing high-quality goat cheese in the mid western United States for over 30 years. The firm is facing several critical issues the most pressing of which include succession planning for family transition and make or buy production decisions. Surviving in a recovering economy is difficult for the strongest of entrepreneurial firms, and Prairie Farms is facing internal and environmental pressures that make the competitive environment particularly challenging.