Toft Dairy isn’t waiting to turn the big 1-2-5 to shake things up a bit.
It’s moooooving now.
The Sandusky-based company – Ohio’s oldest dairy company – is ready to unveil some changes that start with updates to its logos.
“We basically changed the way our ‘T’ is presented, (making) our logo a little bit easier to read,” says Logan Meisler, assistant vice president and member of the family business’ fifth generation. “And through that rebranding process, we really tried to incorporate our cow more and try to let people know who she is and where she came from.”
Who she is is Tilly, the sunglasses-sporting bovine named after Matilda Toft, who, in 1900, founded the company with her husband, Chris.
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“We have a new, freshly designed Tilly head that we're using,” Meisler says, “and then we also are incorporating that into our ‘Tilly Approved’ quality stamp of approval. (The logo is) going to be on all of our packaging in one way shape or form.”
Now, maybe sit down for this next part: Toft’s Moose Tracks and Buckeye Bites ice creams are (gasp!) going away.
Fear not, though – this is not some udder catastrophe. They are being replaced with three new varieties of Tilly Tracks: vanilla, chocolate and peanut butter. (This was
teased in a recent Facebook post.)
In looking for something new, the Toft folks came across a caramel-filled chocolate cow and wondered if they couldn’t have one that instead was filled with peanut butter. They struck an exclusive agreement with Chicago-based chocolate maker
Barry Callebaut’s Gertrude Hawk division for exclusive new molds to make the delicious little cows.
After about eight months to get the molds made, the candy treats are being incorporated into the Tilly Tracks varieties and soon will be arriving in grocery stores.
While synonymous with Sandusky, Toft products can be found south of Columbus in Grove City, east of Cleveland in Mentor and into Indiana and Michigan. And while Meisler says the company would like to expand its reach, it plans to remain local in one very important way.
“We source our milk from 13 family farms, (and) those farmers are all within 60 miles of here,” he says. “We have a hauler that strictly works with us, goes around to our farms and hauls milk in 365 days a year.”
And to be “Tilly Approved,” those farmers agree not to use recombinant bovine somatotropin, the synthetic bovine growth hormone also referred to as rBST.
“We don’t allow that,” Meisler says.
Expect to see all of the new branding when Toft launches a redesigned website in the near future.