Marathon Cheese

What Marathon Cheese does

Marathon Cheese Corporation is a privately held B2B contract manufacturer of custom natural cheese packaging, founded in 1952 by Ray and Marie Goldbach in Marathon City, Wisconsin. The company converts bulk natural cheese into consumer-ready forms — sliced, shredded, chunked, and snack — and delivers them through eight packaging styles including flow wrap, stand-up pouches, pillow bags, skin pack and shrink bag, side gusset bag, formed trays, folding cartons, and RSC/display cases. It serves national and regional customers in both branded and private label categories across three primary segments: retail, food service, and industrial. Its technology base centers on state-of-the-art cheese cutting and packaging equipment, horizontal and vertical form-fill-seal machinery, modified atmosphere packaging environments, robotic product handling, and end-of-line corrugated automation, with the company fabricating and customizing much of its own packaging equipment. All four manufacturing plants — Marathon City WI (headquarters), Medford WI, Mountain Home ID, and Booneville MS — hold SQF Level 3 food safety certification.

The company operates a vertically integrated distribution model through its wholly-owned subsidiary Marathon Cheese Transport, LLC (formed 2002), which provides refrigerated trucking from bulk cheese pickup to finished product distribution across fleet locations in Marathon City and Mountain Home. The transportation division was recognized with the 2021 EPA SmartWay Excellence Award. Total physical footprint exceeds 398,000 square feet across four plants, with the most recent greenfield expansion being the 210,000 sq ft Mountain Home facility in 2007 and a cold storage warehouse expansion in 2018. The company employs 1,001-5,000 people, is privately held with no public ticker, was named to Forbes' 500 biggest private companies in 1997, and has been featured in Fortune magazine for innovation in cheese packaging. Revenue is generated through negotiated B2B contract manufacturing fees with multi-year customer agreements, supported by a dedicated Business Partner Portal for order tracking, with both branded and private label revenue streams across retail, food service, and industrial customers.

Name

Marathon Cheese

Legal name

Marathon Cheese Corporation

Website

https://mcheese.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1952

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Marathon Cheese Corporation is a privately held B2B contract manufacturer founded in 1952 that converts bulk natural cheese into custom sliced, shredded, chunked, and snack packaging for branded and private-label retail, food service, and industrial customers across four U.S. plants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cheese Contract Packaging

NAICS

Cheese Manufacturing (311513)

SIC

Dairy Products (2020)

akta.pro primary industry

Grated, Shredded & Sliced Cheese Manufacturing (Value-Added Cuts) (AFAHABAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cheese Manufacturing (AFAKAKAB), Cheese (Natural & Processed) (CRADACAC)

Keywords

• Cheese packaging services
• Contract cheese manufacturing
• Private label packaging
• Refrigerated food logistics
• Natural cheese processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Marathon

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Revenue model

1. Custom Cheese Packaging Services: Marathon Cheese operates as a contract manufacturer providing custom cheese cutting and packaging services. Revenue is generated through manufacturing fees for converting natural cheese into consumer-ready packaging forms (sliced, shredded, chunked, snacks) for retail, food service, and industrial customers. Both branded and private label categories are served.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Marathon Cheese Corporation is a B2B contract manufacturer that converts bulk natural cheese into consumer-ready packaging forms—including sliced, shredded, chunked, and snack configurations—for retail, food service, and industrial customers in both branded and private label categories. The company operates four manufacturing plants (Marathon City WI, Medford WI, Booneville MS, Mountain Home ID) and provides integrated refrigerated transportation through Marathon Cheese Transport, LLC.

Product overview

Marathon Cheese Corporation is a cheese packaging company offering a unified portfolio of custom natural cheese packaging products and transportation services. The core offerings include packaging in four consumer product forms: sliced, shredded, chunked, and snacks. These are delivered through eight packaging styles (flow wrap, stand-up pouches, pillow bag, skin pack and shrink bag, side gusset bag, formed trays, folding cartons, RSC and display case). The company operates four manufacturing plants (Marathon City, WI headquarters; Medford, WI; Mountain Home, ID; Booneville, MS) and provides integrated transportation services through Marathon Cheese Transport for bulk cheese transportation to finished product distribution.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Custom Sliced Cheese Packaging

Quantifiable outcome

• SQF Level 3 certified across all four manufacturing plants — industry-leading food safety certification
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• United Way of Marathon CountyminorOthers · 1 January 2004Marathon Cheese has partnered with United Way of Marathon County since 2004, contributing over $650,000 to the cause. Employees have engaged in United Way sponsored initiatives such as Smack Hunger and Adopt a Classroom. The partnership includes employer-sponsored volunteerism alongside financial contributions.
• United Way of Taylor CountyminorOthers · 1 January 2004Marathon Cheese has partnered with United Way of Taylor County since 2004 to help serve the community both financially and through employer-sponsored volunteerism.
• Junior Achievement of WisconsinminorOthers · 1 January 2004Marathon Cheese is actively involved in Junior Achievement of Wisconsin as part of its community support and charitable fellowship ideology.
• Raymond & Marie Goldbach FoundationminorOthers · 1 January 1982The Raymond & Marie Goldbach Foundation was established in 1982 to support a wide variety of charities and direct aid where it will benefit employees of Marathon Cheese. The Foundation sponsors annual scholarship programs for children of Marathon Cheese personnel and local area high school students. It also funded the Ray and Marie Goldbach Swim Center in 1988.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves17 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Schreiber Foods: Schreiber Foods is a major private dairy company with a large U.S. cheese and cream cheese packaging operation serving retail and foodservice. Its co-manufacturing and private label cheese business directly overlaps with Marathon's contract packaging and private label focus.
• Hilmar Cheese Company: Hilmar Cheese manufactures natural cheese and converts it into bulk and packaged formats for retail and foodservice customers. Its cheese packaging and ingredient operations are directly comparable to Marathon's sliced, shredded, and chunked offering.
• Great Lakes Cheese: Great Lakes Cheese is one of the largest natural and processed cheese packaging companies in the U.S., operating multiple plants and serving retail, foodservice, and industrial customers with sliced, shredded, and chunked formats. It is the closest direct peer to Marathon's contract cheese packaging model.
• Crystal Farms (Michael Foods): Crystal Farms is a packaged cheese brand and private label cheese supplier serving U.S. grocery channels with shredded, sliced, and snack formats. It competes with Marathon for retail private label and branded packaging programs.

Broad incumbents

• Saputo Inc. Saputo is a large global dairy manufacturer with a sizable U.S. cheese cutting, packaging, and distribution operation. Its branded and private label cheese business competes with Marathon for retail and foodservice customers.
• Leprino Foods: Leprino Foods is the world's largest mozzarella manufacturer and a significant cheese packaging supplier to foodservice and retail customers. While primarily a cheese producer, its downstream packaging operations overlap with Marathon's contract packaging footprint.
• Agropur Cooperative: Agropur is a North American dairy cooperative with substantial U.S. cheese manufacturing and packaging operations serving retail and foodservice. It is comparable as a broad incumbent in the same product and customer space.
• Lactalis American Group: Lactalis is one of the largest global dairy companies with significant U.S. cheese manufacturing and packaged cheese operations. Its cheese cutting and packaging activities overlap with Marathon's contract cheese packaging model.

Emerging players

• Foremost Farms USA: Foremost Farms is a U.S. dairy cooperative with cheese manufacturing and packaging operations serving retail, foodservice, and industrial customers. It has partial overlap with Marathon's cheese packaging and industrial ingredient business.
• Bel Brands USA: Bel Brands is a leading packaged cheese snacks and portions manufacturer (e.g., The Laughing Cow, Mini Babybel) with U.S. packaging operations. It is comparable in the snack cheese sub-category where Marathon has also invested packaging capability.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/101518823246785

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Marathon Cheese