Who Are the Core Customers of Great Lakes Cheese Company?

Tier 1 retailers such as Kroger, Aldi, and Walmart make up the core customers great lakes cheese serves, buying private-label natural and processed cheese at scale; in 2025 these retail contracts accounted for roughly $420 million in annual revenue for Great Lakes Cheese Company (private-label lines and packaged SKUs).

Warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club purchase high-velocity, bulk-format cheese; quick-service restaurant chains and industrial meal manufacturers buy standardized cheese components-combined these segments contributed about 35% of volume in 2025, reflecting growth in bulk cheese purchasers great lakes cheese.

Great Lakes Cheese primarily serves businesses-retail buyers great lakes cheese, distributor partners and wholesalers, and food manufacturers buying great lakes cheese-while also supplying private-label end products to consumer-facing grocery channels; this B2B focus drives repeat, contract-based demand.

Private-label customers for supermarket chain customers remained the top revenue driver in 2025, representing an estimated 55% of consolidated sales as retailers prioritized cost-competitive, large-format cheese SKUs; see why buyers prefer them in Why Customers Choose Great Lakes Cheese Company.

Core customers Great Lakes Cheese are concentrated in discount grocers, club stores, and regional supermarket chains across the Southern and Eastern U.S.; the Abilene, Texas integration and expanded Franklinville, New York capacity target these corridors to serve private-label demand growing at 6% year-over-year in 2025.

Foodservice customers Great Lakes Cheese and regional supermarket buyers in the Midwest still account for meaningful volume, especially for bulk cheese purchasers and ingredient sales to food manufacturers buying Great Lakes Cheese for processed foods and foodservice applications.

Great Lakes Cheese customers show the company is strongest in private-label contracts and club-store programs, where pricing and SKU breadth drive repeat orders; discount grocer and club store verticals delivered the largest volume gains in 2025.

Demand for snackification formats-individual cubes, string cheese-rose 12% in fiscal 2025, and Southern corridor growth tied to population shifts in the Sun Belt supports continued private-label expansion; see Leadership and Ownership of Great Lakes Cheese Company for context on strategic capacity moves.

Great Lakes Cheese expands into premium artisanal-style slices and functional cheeses (probiotic, reduced-fat) using flexible lines that switch from commodity shreds to higher-margin SKUs, capturing portable snack and specialty deli buyers while serving core customers like retail buyers great lakes cheese and foodservice customers great lakes cheese.

The company maintains its massive processing and packaging scale-over 4 billion pounds annual capacity-so bulk cheese purchasers great lakes cheese and distributor partners and wholesalers keep low unit costs and uninterrupted supply, preserving relationships with supermarket chain customers and restaurant supply buyers.

Co-packing agreements with emerging health-focused brands and private label customers enable recurring volumes and stickiness among great lakes cheese private label customers and food manufacturers buying great lakes cheese, increasing repeat demand without brand dilution.

The strongest growth lever in 2025-2026 is flexible lines plus scale: leveraging >4 billion pounds capacity to remain low-cost while capturing high-margin portable snack and specialty deli channels, and expanding into organic/grass-fed segments via co-packing to reach long-tail buyers like export markets and industrial and manufacturing customers; see Customer Acquisition of Great Lakes Cheese Company.