The new facility is set to break ground in Twin Falls, Idaho, providing new opportunities for Idaho’s dairy industry and creating more than 100 milk-processing jobs by the end of 2020, according to a press release from the company.
Construction of the 200,000-square-foot plant is expected to begin this summer, and the company anticipates processing to begin in the summer of 2020.
The vertically integrated bottling facility will be one of the newest and largest aseptic processing facilities in the country, Tom Mikesell, the company’s spokesperson, said in the press release.
“The state-of-the-art facility will utilize the most current technology available to the market. That will allow Gem State to provide its customers with high-quality and lower-cost alternatives for milk and dairy-based beverages,” he said.
Mikesell, a local real estate agent, told Capital Press he sold the company the 76 acres it purchased to build the plant and was asked to be the company’s temporary public relations person. Beyond that, he isn’t privy to other information about the company, including the names of its owners.
He was told, however, that the company will make more information available in the next six to eight weeks.
The Idaho Secretary of State website lists the company’s filing date as Sept. 24, 2018, and its legal agent as Wright Brothers Law Office, PLLC. Capital Press left a message with that law office on Wednesday morning.
Rick Naerebout, CEO of Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said the company hasn’t released the volume of milk it intends to process but the new plant is a welcome addition.
“Any addition to the processing structure is a good deal for Idaho dairymen,” he told Capital Press.
The state’s dairymen produce an additional 800,000 pounds of milk on a daily basis year over year. That led to a 400 million pound increase in 2018 over 2017, he said.
The industry could use additional capacity equal to a Chobani — which processes 2.5 million pounds of milk a day — every three years, he said
Idaho’s dairy industry produces a variety of dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt, but only 3 percent of Idaho’s milk supply stays in fluid form. With more than 450 dairies, Idaho produced more than 15 billion pounds of milk last year — with approximately 2 million pounds of that milk exported out of the state every day.{p class=”m_-4138252941485561096MsoNoSpacing”}The dairy industry in Idaho is innovative and forward thinking, Karianne Fallow, CEO of Dairy West, said in the press release.{p class=”m_-4138252941485561096MsoNoSpacing”}“This new facility exhibits those qualities and is poised to serve the emerging needs of domestic and global customers,” she said.
