From 2000 till the end of 2001 we slowly climbed the ladder to a fairly stable turnover. There was no reason for enthusiasm, but we knew by now what it means to introduce a completely unknown substance to virgin market. Words I had previously used in my business and marketing plans had turned from a theoretical issue to a painful experience made out of blood and flesh.
Nevertheless, our team was confident that with consolidating our experience sooner or later we were going to make it.
And then BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) came upon us like a natural disaster. We felt helpless and exposed to events beyond our control. For weeks nobody bought a package of biestmilch, we recieved no phone calls except of those few people who at least wanted to get some concrete information on biestmilch and its relation to BSE.
During the coming months we did a lot of searches on this issue to bluntly realize that scientific data was scarce, that reliable information was hard to find, that research laboratories – first of all in the UK where the BSE problem was already prominent for years – experimenting on the topic of BSE had been closed, or funds had been cut down to the impossible. Only with the spread of BSE in Europe a reallocation of money finally took place. Of course, much too late because to recieve substantial data on BSE can take decades.
We were obliged to rely on a publication of WHO which stated that milk and its spin-offs are harmless. This announcement was based on the current state-of-the-art science results. It is still valid.
What we did was to circulate our search and the WHO statement to our customers, and most important be patient and talk to as many people as possible on a personal level. After 6 quiet and scaring months business started to gather way again.
