Processors

Mars Announces New $47 Million Sustainable Dairy Plan

Thu, 09 May 2024 13:55:48 GMT

With the goal of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% by the year 2030, Mars Inc. has announced the launch of their ambitious sustainable dairy plan, Moo’ving Dairy Forward, that will be backed by a $47 million investment over three years.

Mars says that as part of the Moo’ving Dairy Forward Sustainable Dairy Plan, a new industry-leading collaboration with dairy cooperative FrieslandCampina, one of the world’s largest dairy producers, is set to result in the establishment of the Mars-FrieslandCampina Sustainable Dairy Development Program – an initiative that will dedicate a group of farms to Mars’ dairy supply. To deliver more sustainable dairy, the program will serve as a platform where new practices and innovative technologies can be refined and scaled-up in a focused and accelerated environment, with an ultimate goal of broader adoption across the entire co-op.

“Doing our part to keep our planet healthy is an absolute non-negotiable for us at Mars,” said Amanda Davies, chief R&D, procurement and sustainability officer, Mars Snacking. “But our vision for more sustainable dairy will only become a reality with the support and actions of farmers and our suppliers. Which is why, as part of our Moo’ving Dairy Forward Sustainable Dairy Plan, we’re putting millions of dollars directly back into the pockets of farmers through our contracts to help them make climate-smart changes to the way they farm. Together, I know that we can forge a path that helps address climate change head on and contributes to reshaping our wider industry for a more sustainable future.”

According to the company, Mars will work with a cohort of industry leaders to implement a host of meaningful on-farm interventions focused on critical areas such as enteric methane reduction, efficient manure management and sustainable feed production.

In conjunction with the company’s plan, Mars has launched three pilot “net zero” dairy farms with the DMK Group in Germany. The sites will study and aim to implement new science and technology with an ambition to create a scalable and economically viable pathway to net zero for dairy. According to the company, the five-year project is a first-of-its-kind for the prominent food and pet care and services conglomerate.

To help reduce methane production, Mars is also partnering with Fonterra and Sea Forest to explore sourcing from their SEAFEED™ seaweed food supplement trial. The trial seeks to demonstrate how SEAFEED™ helps reduce the quantity of methane cows generate in digesting their food.

Currently, more than 200,000 cows and 1,000 farms supply dairy for Mars’ iconic billion-dollar confectionery brands like M&M’S® and SNICKERS®.

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Fairlife Breaks Ground on $650 Million Facility in New York

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:59:51 GMT

Fairlife is known for its value-added dairy products, such as ultra-filtered milk, protein shakes and lactose-free milk. Within the next few years, the company will soon be producing some of these popular products at its upcoming facility in Webster, N.Y.

Earlier this month, fairlife, owned by the Coca-Cola Co., held a groundbreaking ceremony for its upcoming $650 million milk processing plant in upstate New York. The company plans to break ground in the fall and the plant is scheduled to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2025.

Governor Kathy Hochul and representatives from The Coca-Cola Company were in attendance.

“New York State is one of the best places in the country to build a business. We’re proud to welcome The Coca-Cola Company and fairlife’s dairy production facility, which represents a $650 million investment in Monroe County,” Governor Hochul said. “Coming from a family of Irish dairy farmers, this is personal to me — and soon, it will be personal to thousands of Finger Lakes residents who will have access to jobs and economic opportunity. I’m committed to making strategic investments in New York’s agribusinesses to secure our place as one of the top dairy producers in the nation, create good manufacturing jobs, and move our state’s economy forward.”

According to the company, the new facility will serve as fairlife’s flagship Northeast location and will employee approximately 250 full-time workers.

“Consumer demand for fairlife products is at an all-time high, and a new production facility will allow us to significantly increase capacity and deliver fairlife to even more households across the country,” said Tim Doelman, chief executive officer of fairlife. “As we continue to grow in the Northeast, Webster’s proximity and access to best-in-class dairy farmers make it an excellent location to support our next phase of growth in the region and beyond.”

With dairy being one of the top ag commodities produced in the Empire state, the new facility will provide serve as an additional place for producers to go with their milk.

“We have over 3,000 dairy farmers here, and this is a lifeline for them as well, this gives them hope, and I believe in them,” said Hochul. “I’ve toured so many dairy farms around the state, this is such a big deal to them as well.”

Currently, fairlife has plants located in the U.S.:

Goodyear, Arizona
Dexter, New Mexico
Coopersville, Michigan
Fair Oaks, Indiana

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Darigold Appoints New Interim Chief Executive Officer

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 15:36:29 GMT

One of the nation’s largest dairy companies, Darigold, Inc., announced that Chief Executive Officer, Joe Coote, is leaving the company, and the Board Chairman, Allan Huttema, has been named the interim CEO, effective immediately.

Coote, who has spent 12 years working globally in the dairy sector, joined Darigold three years ago as the president of its international ingredients division and was named the cooperative’s CEO in January 2022. The Australian native is stepping down from his role as he intends to return to his home country.

“Serving as CEO of Darigold the last two years was a great privilege,” Coote says. “I have enormous respect and admiration for our farmer-owners and the teams across our business that work so hard to keep our customers stocked with great, high-quality dairy products. Having been away from my home country for many years now, my family and I are ready to return to Australia to begin new adventures back home.”

Huttema shares that Joe took over as CEO at a time when the company was early into a transformation to grow and modernize the business.

“Under his leadership, we took significant steps forward on that effort, beginning construction of our new facility in Pasco, launching a migration of our business management systems, and beginning to develop a culture rooted in excellence in operations,” he says.

Huttema – one of Darigold’s 300 farmer-owners, has been a member of the cooperative business’ board of directors for the last nine years, of which he has held the position of chairman for the last three. He shares that he will take over as interim CEO with the benefit of having an extremely capable leadership team in place, including several Darigold veterans and newer leaders with proven track records across the dairy and consumer packaged goods sectors.

“Our business is structured to run around two divisions – business to business and business to consumer – each with experienced, proven leaders running them,” he says. “I have full confidence that the team and the structure we have in place will help ensure that we continue serving our customers in the way they have come to expect from us.”

Headquartered in Seattle, Darigold, Inc. is the marketing and processing subsidiary of the Northwest Dairy Association (NDA), which is owned by nearly 300 family-owned farms in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Darigold handles approximately 10 billion pounds of milk annually.

Minnesota Dairy Plant Announces Big Expansion Plans

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 18:20:13 GMT

In the small town of Perham, Minn., sits Bongards Creameries, a leading national cheese and whey manufacture who recently announced a $125 million expansion project. The project is expected to begin in July and will increase the plant’s capacity to take in 5.5 million lbs. of milk per day, an increase of 30%.

“With this latest investment, we will be able to continue supporting the growth of our business, allow our current farmer-owners to expand, and allow us to bring on new members,” said Daryl Larson, Bongards CEO, in a press release statement. “In order to increase our milk intake by nearly a third, many aspects of the production process need to be expanded.”

The expansion project includes:

Milk intake bays
Cheese packaging equipment
Whey drying and packaging equipment
Whey warehousing
Wastewater treatment

Bongards Creameries is a farmer-owned co-op that was formed in 1908 in the southeastern Minnesota town of Bongards. The co-op’s dairy farmers are based in Minnesota and North Dakota. Corporate offices are in Chanhassen, and the company’s three production facilities are in Bongards, Minn., Perham, and Humboldt, Tenn.

Previously, Bongards completed a significant expansion of the Perham plant’s capacity in 2015, expanded warehouse capacity in 2022, and replaced the existing cheese vats and evaporator in 2023. In 2018, Bongard’s opened their new headquarters in Chanhassen, Minn.

In 2020, the Central States Water Environment Association recognized Bongards with the Industrial Water Quality Achievement Award in recognition of the creameries waste reduction goals, wastewater treatment success, water reuse, and other environmental initiatives at its Perham natural cheese production plant.

Major work on the project is expected to commence in July 2023 and be completed in June 2025. Construction is being completed by a local Perham contractor.

World’s Largest Dairy Processor, Lactalis, Plans Expansion in Chicago

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:21:52 GMT

A big dairy expansion is making its way to the Windy City. France’s Groupe Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy maker, is expanding in Chicago after a previous $3.2 billion deal made in 2020 with Kraft Heinz Co. to acquire their cheese brands, according to Bloomberg.

The French based dairy giant has been growing its business within the U.S. in recent years, with America becoming its second largest market. The expansion comes as Lactalis prepares to separate its supply chain and finance systems as part of the integration of Kraft brands including Cracker Barrel and Knudsen.

“The U.S. is obviously a much bigger country from a land-based standpoint than France is,” says Peter Cotter, chief executive officer of Lactalis Heritage Dairy — the business that runs the natural cheese brands bought from Kraft. “The absolute growth opportunity that exists I think makes it the perfect growth market.”Cotter notes Lactalis agreed to buy Kraft’s natural cheese business in 2020 and has since then completed the first phase of separation, which included sales, marketing, human resources, the commercial area and manufacturing. A transition agreement for the supply chain and finance systems will end in March, he says.

Bloomberg states Lactalis is now hiring to build out those areas and expects to have about 220 employees in its Chicago offices by the end of the year, bringing the division’s total workforce to 850. Currently, Lactalis Heritage Dairy represents 39% of the group’s total U.S. business.

The family-owned company plans to hire almost 100 people at its offices in the Windy City over the next 12 months. Lactalis says hiring is still challenging in engineering, manufacturing and other technical areas, but the company is confident it can continue bring in employees from firms that have decided to leave the city.