The Tillamook County Creamery Association has enjoyed a rapid rise from regional dairy brand to national powerhouse, with annual sales jumping nearly 250% to more than $1.2 billion in the past decade.
Executives said the cooperative isn’t done growing, but expansion already has provided stability for its 60 dairy farmers on the Oregon Coast.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association’s nationwide expansion has helped make small dairy farms sustainable on the Oregon Coast, said Shannon Lourenzo, chairman of the cooperative’s board of directors.
Kyle Odegard/Capital Press
“It’s making small farms sustainable, where a lot of other places throughout the country, small farms are struggling,” said Shannon Lourenzo, a farmer who is chairman of the association’s board of directors.
TCCA members get consistent pay that doesn’t follow the ups and downs of the market, Lourenzo said.
Tillamook farmers have always dealt with wet weather and higher hay and fuel prices, since goods have to be hauled to the northwestern Oregon coast.
Add in the recent inflation, rising interest rates and record feed prices and the dairies were under pressure.
Increased co-op distributions helped smooth out the downturn, Lourenzo said.
“Without that growth, we wouldn’t have been able to keep up,” he added. “That’s where the power of the brand has really got us through this.”
Deciding to expand
The TCCA formed in 1909 with 10 independent dairies each chipping in $10 and using a cheese recipe with just four ingredients that’s still followed today.
The cooperative is still owned by its farmers and has added ice cream, butter, cream cheese spreads, yogurt, sour cream and frozen meals to its lineup.
In 2012, when Patrick Criteser started as CEO and president, challenges were mounting.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association has had a smooth transition that’s been well received by the organization. David Booth, left, a longtime executive, took over as CEO and president from Patrick Criteser, who had led the cooperative since 2012.
Daphne Scott/Contributed photo
“Being only regional wasn’t going to produce the growth or financial security needed to support the dairy families of Tillamook,” said Criteser, a sixth-generation Oregonian with experience at Nike and Disney.
Larger retailers had expanded nationwide and it was increasingly difficult to compete on a regional scale.
Winning the West
Leadership positioned Tillamook cheese as a premium yet accessible product, with more cream and natural aging. They believed consumers would recognize the value, pay more and put Tillamook in their shopping carts every week.
“We kind of tested our strategy first in what we called ‘Win the West,’” Criteser said.
The higher price point and additional regional distribution worked, and proceeds were reinvested in the brand.
“We then in 2018 decided to pursue a national footprint,” Criteser said.
That included the rollout of a new logo and packaging makeover.
More room for growth
Typically, big growth brands have introduced something new, TCCA leadership said. The cooperative, meanwhile, made traditional products, targeted mainstream success and pushed into new markets.
Introducing a new brand to consumers is expensive and risky, Criteser said.
“It was not a foregone conclusion or straightforward that we would be able to almost triple the business in a decade,” he added.
Today, Tillamook is the fastest-growing cheese, ice cream and cream cheese brand in the country. Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households buy Tillamook products.
On top of that, there’s still growth potential across the nation that will make margins better, Lourenzo said.
Expanding to the Midwest
Success has allowed the TCCA to make new and larger investments. In early 2025, the cooperative is opening a new plant in Decatur, Ill., that will employ 45 people.
“That will be our first facility that just makes ice cream,” said David Booth, who became Tillamook’s new CEO and president this summer.
David Booth
He’s been with the cooperative for about a decade, and his previous role was as Tillamook’s executive vice president of brand growth and commercialization.
Though cheese remains Tillamook’s top seller, ice cream sales have grown faster in the past decade.
The cooperative has made ice cream since the 1940s, but had little distribution outside the Northwest until recently, Booth said.
Though cheese remains Tillamook’s top category, ice cream has grown faster in the past decade. The cooperative has made ice cream since the 1940s, but there was little distribution outside the Northwest until recently.
Contributed photo
The cooperative recognized ice cream products as a growth segment and a gateway to other dairy categories.
Booth said the new Illinois plant is the next logical step in Tillamook’s growth, as it puts a supply chain underneath national distribution.
Three Tillamook managers from Oregon moved to Illinois to start the facility, bringing with them the cooperative’s culture and values.
Production facilities
The Decatur facility is Tillamook’s third plant and its first outside Oregon.
The Tillamook Cheese Factory operates on Highway 101, just north of the city of Tillamook.
Every day, the Tillamook Cheese Factory brings in 1.8 million pounds of milk and produces roughly 170,000 pounds of cheese.
Kyle Odegard/Capital Press
In 2001, the cooperative opened a new plant at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Ore.
That Eastern Oregon facility brings in milk from partners such as Threemile Canyon Farms, the state’s largest dairy, as well as Darigold cooperative farmers.
Tillamook also partners with contract manufacturers to make some of its products.
Additional opportunities
Booth said additional plants will create more efficiency for TCCA and a better return for dairy farmers.
But the cooperative won’t make wild bets, and more measured growth is the goal, he said.
Booth said it was better to think of Tillamook as adding depth rather than expanding during its next decade.
The brand won’t stray from its dairy footprint, but needs to leverage growth that’s already occurred, he added.
There are also possibilities with new domestic sales channels and international markets.
Convenience stores are a target, and Booth said the cooperative can utilize its success with cheese for snack products. Tillamook also recently launched pint-sized ice cream cartons.
TCCA has a small international presence, but Booth believes the brand can expand outside the U.S.
Criteser said U.S. and Northwest dairy products have an advantage internationally, thanks to their reputation for quality.
Tillamook also already has a positive reputation as well, said Erick Garman, Oregon Department of Agriculture trade manager. “As they look to expand into international markets, they are already known and respected by importers and distributors, even without a significant export presence,” he added.
Added visibility
Marcia Walker, director of Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland, said Tillamook’s national impact brings attention to Oregon’s food and beverage sector.
Marcia Walker
OSU
Tillamook helps build and is emblematic of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest’s identity as a region that produces premium but approachable agricultural products.
The co-op also touts Oregon ingredients such as berries in its ice cream and other value-added products, reinforcing the region’s bounty, Walker said.
Simple innovation
Walker said Tillamook has set trends for other companies to follow with exciting flavors that have become mainstream.
“Pepper Jack was considered a specialty cheese, and now you can buy the big 2-pound block of it. It’s simple innovation like that, but it’s paying big rewards,” Walker said.
Tillamook’s sales climb is significant, but so is the brand loyalty.
“It would be different if it was a company that people didn’t care about, but Tillamook is really well-regarded and well-respected,” Walker said.
The cooperative has won a plethora of awards for its cheeses and pushed into the super premium ranks with some products.
Other benefits
Tillamook’s upswing brings other benefits for communities. The cooperative has 1,100 employees, up 69% from 2012.
It’s also a tourism driver, philanthropic force and environmental leader on the coast, said Nan Devlin, executive director of Visit Tillamook Coast.
Tillamook increased environmental initiatives under Criteser’s leadership, adopting a stewardship charter in 2017.
That was partly to meet consumer expectations, but TCCA farmers care deeply about their impacts, Criteser said.
In 2020, Tillamook became a certified B Corporation for its efforts to save water, improve animal welfare and assist communities battling the COVID pandemic.
Cheesiest place in Oregon
The Tillamook Creamery visitor center is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state, with 1 million visitors in 2023.
Izzayah Dobbs, 9, of Sublimity, Ore., “drives” as he and his cousin Christian Priest, 9, of Brush Prairie, Wash., play in a photo station set up for visitors at the Tillamook Creamery. Their family was on a beach vacation and came to get ice cream and see the facility upgrades from 2018.
Photos by Kyle Odegard/Capital Press
That helped drive nearly $300 million in visitor spending for Tillamook County in 2023, creating ripples throughout the local economy, Devlin said.
“It’s huge,” she added.
Every day, the Tillamook Cheese Factory brings in 1.8 million pounds of milk and creates roughly 170,000 pounds of cheese — workers on the production floor are watched by guests from throughout the country.
Abel Adams, 7, of Hillsboro, Ore., likes finding new license plates, and the visitors center parking lot was a bonanza with vehicles from Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan and elsewhere.
“There are so many different ones here. Even Canada,” exclaimed mom Lacey Adams.
Married couple Morgan Bernard and Craig Morgan of Port Townsend, Wash., were on a beach vacation and purchased 2012, 2014 and 2017 editions of Tillamook Maker’s Reserve Cheddar Cheese.
“We try to buy things here we can’t find anywhere else,” Bernard said.
Visitors also can get ice cream and other food, pose at photo stations and purchase Tillamook branded apparel.
During a guided tour, guests laughed upon learning Tillamook County has more cows (30,000) than people (29,000).
Farm consolidation
The number of cows and acreage has stayed steady, but TCCA farmer members declined by about 30 in the last five years.
John Seymour of Cloverdale, Ore., a fifth generation farmer whose family helped form the cooperative, said that’s because of retirements.
“I don’t see farms going out of business because of financial stress here. It seems more aging out, and their sons and daughters don’t want to do it,” said Seymour, a TCCA board member and chairman of the Oregon Beef Council.
“The next, best person to purchase their land and continue the operation is a neighbor,” Seymour added.
His family’s dairy farm grew that way.
Future appears bright
Farmers might experience rough patches and new challenges such as new state overtime regulations and avian influenza, but dairies are more likely to survive in Tillamook County, Lourenzo said.
Because the cooperative grew organically without outside capital, TCCA’s expansion feels solid, he added.
The succession also has gone smoothly and was well received because leadership transferred from a long-tenured CEO to a familiar executive, Lourenzo said.
A calf at Shannon Lourenzo’s dairy farm in Tillamook, Ore., Silver Stream Jerseys. Lourenzo said the Tillamook County Creamery Association’s growth feels like it has a solid foundation, in part because no outside capital was involved.
Kyle Odegard/Capital Press
The future looks bright for Tillamook and its farmers — even with 100 inches of rain every year — and expansion is a major reason.
“There is nobody that has done or is doing what we’re doing as far as the growth and the distributions for members,” Lourenzo said.
Seymour discussed how farms evolve and adapt to thrive, how his grandfather installed one of the first milking parlors in the area, how his parents were pioneers with intensive rotational grazing systems.
“As a farmer, I have to grow, innovate and be more efficient, and challenge the status quo to survive. I think our co-op is the same way,” Seymour said.
“We’re going to have to keep going and moving into the future,” he said.
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