Ofer Bloch

Ofer Bloch is resigning his position as managing director of Tnuva's dairy division, which has an annual NIS 3.5 billion turnover.Completion of the dairy is the culmination of his work at Tnuva."The entire venture is designed to achieve one thing to operate more effectively, with better quality products, and greater flexibility in adapting new products to the industry, in a market where competition is constantly intensifying," he told "Globes".

"Globes: What savings will the new dairy achieve?

Bloch: "We estimate that the new dairy will reduce costs by NIS 100 million a year."
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"We'll pipe whey directly from the Alon Tabor dairy to the Ba'Emek plant, instead of transporting it in containers," Bloch explains.

"There is nothing in our marketing goals about slamming Danone," Ofer Bloch, the head of Tnuva's dairy division, says reassuringly."There is room for more than one product from each category in the marketing wars, and the activity will enlarge the entire market.People will eat more yogurt.Strauss is an excellent company and there is going to be a tough campaign.I have no doubt that Yoplait has caught on.There is a sector of consumers that is looking for it, and in the end both of them [Yoplait and Danone] will be on the shelf and enjoy a greater market share."

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At Tnuva, we find the director of the milk concern's marketing branch Michal Hameiri, the director of marketing in the yogurt and soft cheeses department, Tami Halevi, and the head of the milk division, Ofer Bloch - and they are all as pleased as punch.
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Bloch: "We are producing it 24 hours a day and we can't keep up with the demand.The demand is exceeding the forecasts at a level that I can't ever remember.There is a certain number of containers that we are capable of manufacturing per hour, and even that is without unexpected problems.Our forecast was off by hundreds of percent, and the system can't cope.In the first 10 days, we sold the amount we had planned for a month.And before that, we were scared because of what we'd planned for the first month."

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Bloch: "It's not moral to create a fictitious shortage.It's wrong vis-a-vis the consumer.Every container that's missing on the shelves hurts me."

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Bloch: "The Tnuva infrastructure was healthy and there was a true desire.When we set up the marketing division, there were people who didn't even want to send us a CV. Today there is no one in the profession who doesn't want to work for Tnuva, and not only because of the salary.The fact is that the company has preserved its values, its authenticity.There are things that Tnuva will not do."

Such as what?

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Bloch: "Food should be tasty and fun.Especially food that's not some kind of steak."

The rebuttal

"I'm not surprised that that's what they told you at Tnuva," Fredy Aboukrat says, unsurprised."How would you react?

Ofer BlochThe board of directors at Israeli satellite television broadcaster YES have appointed Ofer Bloch (right), who until last month was managing director of the dairy division at Tnuva Marketing Cooperative, a sales and marketing organisation for Israel's kibbutzim and moshavim farming cooperatives, as the company's new Chief Executive Officer.The other candidate for the post, YES's deputy CEO Nir Lempert, who was backed by minor shareholders, has announced his resignation following Bloch's appointment.

The new Chief Executive, who will take up the post at the beginning of 2004, will replace Shlomo Liran, YES's CEO for the last two and half years, who made the surprise announcement in June that he had achieved his goal of improving the company's financial position and intends to step down.Liran stated that when took on the job in the summer of 2001, YES had 60,000 subscribers and negative EBITDA, and the company now has over 400,000 subscribers and EBITDA of Shkl5 million (€129,405).Liran, although originally tipped to head telecommunications firm Orange in Sweden, was recently hired by HI3G, Hutchinson Telecom's Scandinavian UMTS (3G) operation, as its new Chief Executive.

Bloch has yet to outline his plans for the Israeli DTH operation.