Leprino Foods gears up for November launch of monster dairy
Leprino Foods - the largest US exporter of whey products and a major producer of mozzarella, cheese blends and pizza cheese – has hired 90 full-time staff to run ‘phase one’ of the plant in Greeley, Colorado, which will make non-fat dry milk for Leprino’s other plants.
When fully operational, Greeley will be one of the Denver-based firm’s largest plants, handling 7m pounds of milk a day and producing dairy ingredients, mozzarella, reduced-fat Monterey jack, provolone, reduced-fat cheddar and various cheese blends.
Phase two recruitment will commence early next year
Leprino, which ultimately expects to employ up to 500 staff at Greeley, will begin hiring an additional 200 full-time employees for phase two in early 2012, communications director Ted Wietecha told FoodNavigator-USA.com. Details of phase three have yet to be released.
“Leprino Foods will produce non-fat dry milk during phase one. We will ramp up our cheese and dairy ingredients production during phases two and three.”
Responding to press reports questioning the ability of local farmers to supply the new mega-dairy with sufficient milk, he said:
“When complete, Leprino Foods' Greeley facility will use 7+ million pounds of milk per day and produce over 700,000 pounds of cheese per day. Phase 1 will use 1+ million pounds of milk per day, and Phases 2 and 3 will use an additional 2.5+ million pounds of milk per day with each phase.
“Leprino Foods is working with [dairy marketing co-op] Dairy Farmers of America to ensure we have the milk supply to meet our future demand. It is expected that 60,000 to 80,000 dairy cattle will be added to a few new and many existing dairy herds in the Northern Colorado region.”
Growth opportunities in ‘every part of the business’
Family-owned Leprino, which is pumping more than$250m into the 883,000 sq ft facility, had the confidence to make such a significant investment because it was seeing strong demand across all areas of its business, Wietecha told FoodNavigator-USA earlier this year.
“Leprino Foods is a growing company and in order to meet demand and sustain our growth we need to expand our operations. We see the opportunity for growth in every area of the business.”
Leprino, which has plants in California, New Mexico, Colorado, New Mexico, New York and Michigan, also operates sites in Northern Ireland and Wales via a joint venture with Glanbia.
Its US dairies make a wide range of cheese and dairy ingredients including calcium; whey protein concentrates for nutritional beverages, food bars, supplements, and infant foods; gelling proteins to replace egg whites and starches; dairy flavors; and lactose for infant formula, confectionery and seasoning blends.
