Did you know there’s a factory making cheese that’s sold all over the country right here in Berrien County?
Old Europe Cheese operates out of a facility on Empire Avenue in Benton Harbor, where it’s been producing soft cheeses for about 40 years. General Manager Gilbert Bourgouin tells us they’re a French-owned company headquartered in Madrid and with facilities in France, Spain, and Poland. They came to Benton Harbor in the 80s.
“They were looking to expand to the U.S. and they sent somebody to search and he found this facility,” Bourgouin said. “So in 1987, they purchased this facility. It was originally just a fluid dairy plant and they slowly converted it to making semi-soft cheese, which is like gouda and edams, and soft cheeses, which is the bries.”
Bourgouin says the factory in Benton Harbor eventually switched its focus to brie. They make it under the Reny Picot label, which can be found in favors including peppercorn and garlic and herb.
“We just produced what we call a semi-soft brie cheese, kind of like the French style. We produce it in a 5 ounce, 8 ounce, 14 ounce, 1 kilo, 3 kilo. We also kind of make a unique product which we call a rectangle log and we make that in an 8 ounce, a 1 pounder, and a 3.25 pounder. It’s kind of unique because it’s kind of a rectangle shape and it’s easy to slice rather than trying to slice what we call the rounds, the normal brie shape.”
With about 45 employees on site, the company last year produced around one million pounds of cheese, all using milk from a Michigan supplier. We took a tour of the plant this week, and Bourgouin described the brie making process to us.
“We purchase milk and cream from MMPA. We blend it together to get a specified butterfat, depending if we’re making a double cream or a triple cream recipe. From there, the milk goes into what we call vats. The cultures are added to the vat, rennet’s added to the vat, the vat’s stirred up, the vat goes around what we call a line. It’s kind of like an assembly line, kind of like a train. At some point, we cut the cheese to form the curds and the whey, and the curds and whey are dumped into molds.”
The cheese then cures for eight or nine days before being ready to go. They also package it on-site.
Bourgouin says the plant shut down in 2022 for some refurbishments, and since then it’s been regrowing as the company seeks out new distributors and tries to get into more stores.
“Check some local grocery stores and you can ask around and sometimes you’ll see it where the Reny Picot label. We do some private labels as well. One of our big private labels is the La Bonne Vie, which is distributed by GFI.”
Right now, the company ships its cheeses around the U.S., to Mexico, and to Costa Rica, among other places. Bourgouin says if you’re looking for a high-quality, French-style soft brie, look for Reny Picot, and maybe ask your favorite store to stock it.
“We think we have one of the best products, one of the best US-made bries, and we’re happy with it, and we just continue to grow.”
