From Knut Krohn
The monks of the French abbey Citeaux actually avoid the internet. But now they have achieved an unexpected success with the sale of their famous cheese.
Photo: AFP
Because of the corona pandemic, the French abbey was left sitting on two tons of its famous Reblochon. Then the fellow believers dared to go online.
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Paris – The monks of Citeaux Abbey naturally believe in miracles. This belief is part of their job description. But now the 17 friars themselves have been surprised, which has less to do with divine providence and more to do with earthly market economy.
The abbey sat on a huge mountain of 4,000 wheels of cheese. The Reblochon variety has been produced in Citeaux since 1925 and enjoys a unique reputation among gourmets. However, the corona pandemic poses a fundamental problem for the monks. “Customers come to the shops less and the restaurants are closed,” says Brother Jean-Claude, marketing officer for the abbey, which was founded in 1098. The decline in sales is almost 50 percent. The normal annual turnover is around 1.2 million euros.
The cows don’t listen to the monks
An attempt was made to explain to the 75 cows that they should produce less milk – “but they don’t seem to understand,” explains Brother Jean-Claude with a wink. It is also difficult to simply move the outer walls of the abbey in order to store the over two tons of excess cheese.
For this reason, the monks dared to make the leap into the 21st century in terms of marketing: they sold their Reblochon over the Internet. “We normally refuse internet orders,” emphasizes the monk Jean-Claude. But special circumstances in this case require extraordinary measures. The cheese was offered through the start-up “Divine Box”, which specializes in the online sale of products from religious orders. The campaign was supposed to last three days, but after just a few hours, the message on the side of “Divine Box” shone in bright red: “Opération terminée – 2006.9kg précommandés en 24h!” The cheese was sold out in no time at all.
An unexpected success of the action
“We are overwhelmed by the success,” explains Brother Benoit, who is responsible for the monastery’s finances. “That was completely unexpected.” The cheese was not only sold on the Internet, apparently word of the campaign quickly got around in the real world and significantly more customers came to the local shops.
It is not clear whether this hype about the Citeaux Reblochon will have an impact on the abbey’s future marketing strategies. The fellow believers will certainly only think about this after they have sent a relieved prayer of thanks towards heaven.
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