How did you start in the business ?

My grandfather Louis founded the Duroux dairy in 1936, located in a small village called Pommerol (19) at the time. He made Bleu d’Auvergne at first, before making Cantal with cow’s milk from the Salers breed. My father Paul started working there when he was very young, and I now represent the 3rd generation. After middle school, I went to the Aurillac dairy school where I got a professional Baccalaureat. After doing my military service, I joined the family business. At the time, there were only seven employees. I went from collecting the milk to making the cheese, and then moved onto sales and marketing of the various dairy products. I became joint manager with my parents in 1991.

What do you produce?

Located at Rilhac-Xaintrie (19), in the Cantal and Bleu d’Auvergne AOP certification area, our production volume totals 1100 tons per annum, including 565 tons of AOP Cantal, our flagship product. Cantal is a hard, uncooked cheese and a treasure built on local tradition and know-how. We also produce 225 tons of a cheese we make ourselves called “Pavé Corrézien’, sold under our “Pommerol” brand. This uncooked, hard cheese with a slight hazelnut flavour has a higher fat content (50%) than Cantal and comes in the form of a parallelogram< (33 cm long, 17 cm high) weighing 17 kg. It is whiter and creamier than Cantal and sold at 30 days. It is often used in cubes for ready-made dishes, salads or pizzas. We also mature and sell 125 tons of Auvergne cheeses (Salers, Bleu d’Auvergne, Saint-Nectaire, Laguiole) and 85 tons of organic Cantal and Tomme de Montagne, not to mention 100 tons of dairy by-products (cream, etc.).

How do you work?

We collect the milk from our 65 producers, including 10 dairy farms, all located in the AOP area, 20 kilometres from our site, every two days. The milk transported to the dairy at 4°C is stored in cooling tanks before it is treated and heated to 32°C, the coagulation temperature. We then add bacilli and rennet to it, before cutting up the curds finely to remove the serum. At this stage, we press the cheese and turn it several times to increase the product’s dry matter. The following stage concerns maturing, crushing and salting process. Once the salt is fully absorbed, we crush the cheese again then press and mould it to obtain the final Cantal shape (32 cm to 35 cm high, 35 cm to 40 cm in diameter).

It is then placed in the maturing caves to finish drying. It is matured for roughly 30 days in our cellars before going into tunnels for several months, depending on the desired maturity. We have our own maturing tunnel, an old railway tunnel 1.2 kilometres long, 100 m underground for insulation, at constant temperature, with 98% hygrometry. Cantal matures for 30 days minimum when young (jeune), 90 days minimum when medium entre-deux, and 240 days minimum when old vieux). We also sell a medium Cantal at 150 days’ maturity, which is our bestselling Cantal. It has a firm, smooth, soft body and good mould rind with red flecks that develop according to the hygrometry. A good Cantal should be smooth, fruity (hazelnut), not grainy or bitter, and it should melt in the mouth. 

What is your strategy for development ?

We have remodelled our production plant, extending the floor space from 2,200 m2 to 5 200 m2. We want to do the cutting to offer the end customer a better service and position ourselves in self-service shops. We will be developing our cutting workshop in 2010. We are also trying to develop exports, especially organic products, which represent 3% of our volumes.
Today, we can see that the cutting market is starting to slow down, which is why we have to segment our production to avoid missing out on certain markets. Auvergne cheeses are experiencing a slight loss of market share and we have to react to this with quality, tradition and know-how, differentiating ourselves with specific, local niche products with high value added.

What is your opinion of Rungis Market?

My grandfather used to sell at Les Halles de Paris and my father sold at Rungis Market as soon as it opened. It is a key market for us, which gives a positive image of our products. Rungis Market is a good commercial partner, a good promotional tool and an important outlet because of its excellent professionals. But I think there are still some improvements to be made.