Queijo Saloio

: the woman who stared at goats

Abstract

Founded in 1968 by Vitório Alves and built upon the belief that “good milk makes a good cheese”, Queijo Saloio was Portugal’s most innovative cheese company. Under the supervision of Clara Moura Guedes, the organization conquered its place as leader in the cheese specialties segment. Such accomplishment was made through the creation of a diversified portfolio and strong positioning in the goat cheese market. Despite having reached 26 million Euros in revenues in 2008, Queijo Saloio’s sales progressively decreased until 2011. In three years, the third largest organization in the Portuguese cheese market was being threatened by the macro-­‐environment and the empowerment of large retailers’ private labels. In face of adversity, Clara Moura Guedes was weighing the hypothesis of expanding to Angola, an option that had been previously looked into in 2009. Saloio’s path is an interesting subject of discussion, as it includes topics of product differentiation, positioning, the private labels phenomenon and internationalization. In this sense it may be analyzed in any marketing or strategy course, supported by the theoretical concepts proposed in a literature review. The proposed reflection focuses mainly on the drawing of potential solutions to Queijo Saloio’s problems, assessing the viability of the expansion to Angola.

Date of Award	9 Jan 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nuno Magalhães Guedes (Supervisor)