Upstate Niagara Cooperative, of New York, is celebrating the one year anniversary of its cultured dairy products plant, with a nine-percent growth in sales.
The new $32.5 million plant, which opened last May, is twice the size of the century-old plant it replaced on Scott Street in Buffalo and it can process twice as much raw milk. It also has eight filling lines, more automation and more modern and updated quality and environmental controls that, combined with the merger of the Upstate Farms and Niagara Milk cooperatives last July, has boosted efficiency and given the business greater economies of scale.
In all, Upstate’s sales grew by about 9 percent last year to about $500 million. The merger of the two local cooperatives also is creating opportunities for additional growth, with the addition of several new customers responsible for the hiring of 10 workers over the last year.
The products include Upstate’s flagship Bison brand dip, sour cream, cottage cheese, ice cream mix and yogurt products that also are marketed under brand names such as Upstate Farms and Breakstone’s.
The West Seneca, N.Y. plant processes about 110 million pounds of raw milk each year. Much of that milk is turned into sour cream, cottage cheese and dip. But yogurt has emerged as the plant’s fastest growing product, distributed to customers in nearly every state, including Alaska.