Tillmoook is planning to employ around 45 staff at the plant, up from 35 during Prairie Farms’ era. Tillamook is one of the country’s fastest-growing ice cream brands, so this acquisition makes sense.” “Sales of ice cream spiked nationwide throughout the pandemic, making it a challenging time for companies looking to add capacity. According to Lenny Davis, CEO of Harry Davis & Company, ‘it was apparent to us there was a significant value and opportunity in finding a processor to restart production’. The Decatur-based factory is an important keystone to the local economy, too. By offering immediate entry to the market, alongside the local milkshed and a Midwest location, the plant had a buyer lined-up in less than 60 days since the property listing went live. Our investments will include structural updates, aesthetic improvements, food safety standard improvements, employee welfare enhancements and extensive line upgrades.”Īccording to Harry Davis & Company - the estate firm which sold the facility to TCCA – the plant can produce more than 14 million gallons of ice cream yearly at peak. “TCCA will spend the next 18 to 24 months updating the plant to bring it up to TCCA's manufacturing quality standards, with a goal of October 2024 for the first full ice cream production run. “In the last year, Tillamook ice cream sales grew nearly 60% in the eastern US, and with so much demand in that part of the country, it makes sense for us to manufacture some of our products geographically closer to the customers who will be purchasing them,” said Mike Bever, executive vice-president of operations at TCCA. Mike Bever, executive VP of operations at Tillamook County Creamery AssociationĮarlier this month, the co-op revealed it had purchased the former Prairie Farms ice cream facility in Decatur, Illinois, with a goal of making it fully operational by Q4 2024. Packaging & Packing Materials, Containers.Processing Equipment & Systems, Automation, Control.Filling & Packaging Equipment & Systems."I'm sure it's all about making more money. "I think it's terrible that they're acting like it's still made in Oregon," Janice says. The Neilsons own and operate Fraga Farm in Sweet Home, one of the 19 organic dairy farms currently certified by Oregon Tilth. Lincoln says Tillamook cannot produce the organic cheese locally because it is unable to buy enough organic milk in Oregon-a claim that Janice and Larry Neilson find hard to believe. Many national distributors balk at the idea of revealing who or where their products come from, Lancaster says, but "a lot of our customers do care and want to buy locally." Finance manager Lee Lancaster says the store, which emphasizes detailed labeling, will probably put a sign up next to the product to clarify where it comes from. The fuzziness doesn't sit well with the folks at Food Front in Northwest Portland, who assumed the organic Bandon cheese they were selling came from Oregon. "This is fuzzy," she says, and now that the name of the company is Oregon Coast Foods, it gets even fuzzier." Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the Oregon attorney general's office, says no official complaints have been filed, but she concedes that it is confusing. In April 2003, Tillamook changed Bandon's official name to "Oregon Coast Foods," which is the name that appears on the back label. Tillamook spokeswoman Christie Lincoln says "Oregon Coast Cheese" is a slogan used for brand recognition, not to signify the product's origin. Nowhere, even in fine print, does it say it's made in Wisconsin, a fact Carey described as "deceitful."įederal law bans companies from misleading consumers about where a product originates. "Oregon Coast Cheese," she said, pointing to the label. When stopped in the parking lot outside Wild Oats in Southwest Portland and shown a block of Bandon organic cheese, Carey assumed it was made in Bandon. The 48-year-old Portlander makes a point of buying fresh, local goods. That news left a sour taste in Laura Carey's mouth. But it's still made in Wisconsin, from Midwest milk. The cheese is made according to the original Bandon recipe specifications before traveling to Tillamook in 42-pound blocks via refrigerated trucks to be graded, aged, cut up, wrapped, labeled and shipped for distribution throughout the Northwest. But, as WW has learned, its three organic cheeses, which had been made in Bandon prior to Tillamook's purchasing the plant, were outsourced to a facility in Wisconsin. Here's what's up: Four years ago, Tillamook bought the Bandon Cheese company and moved production of its cheeses to Tillamook.
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