Guida’s Milk, Conn., has been sold to Dairy Farmers of America (DFA).
Guida’s will still buy more than 75 percent of its raw milk from Connecticut farmers. And Guida-Seibert Dairy Co. Inc., as the company is formally named, will now have access to more capital to expand.
All 257 employees will keep their jobs, including the president, Michael Young — a non-family member who was previously chief financial officer, and succeeded Michael Guida in the top job last October.
Guida’s was founded at the depth of the Depression, in 1932, by Alexander Guida Jr. — one of 13 children of Mary and Alexander Guida, immigrants who settled in Middletown as dairy farmers in the 1880s. Alexander Jr.’s brother, Frank (Jim’s father) joined him in 1947 when they bought the Seibert Dairy, which had been founded in 1886.
Guida’s, with 200 trucks and sales in surrounding states as well as Connecticut, was already strong. The company grew in 2011 by more than 15 percent in volume over 2010, Guida said. Including price increases, the gains were even larger. Guida’s built a 25,000-square-foot warehouse expansion and a 50,000-gallon silo at its New Britain headquarters in 2011.
For Dairy Farmers of America, which chiefly markets milk to processors, the acquisition provides a foothold in New England, and a processing business to diversify. DFA has not assigned a single person to the Guida’s operation.
Source: Hartford Courant, by Dan Haar