Leprino Foods will build a new $270 million mozzarella plant in Colorado.
The plant and its 500 jobs are expected to produce a major economic uplift to northern Colorado — and help bring the state’s struggling dairy industry back to health.
“This is going to be a hell of an economic boon for the state,” said Greg Yando, a regional official of the Dairy Farmers of America. “We are all just ecstatic.”
The factory is projected to generate $15 billion over 20 years in wages and direct and indirect spending.
Colorado dairy farmers are expected to add, collectively, 80,000 new cows to their herds in coming years and double current milk production to supply the Greeley facility.
The new plant also will solidify Leprino Foods’ stranglehold on the mozzarella business. No other company in the world tops Leprino’s output — a mountain of mozzarella that when the Greeley factory reaches full capacity will be a staggering 2 billion pounds a year.
The new Greeley plant — which will be the second-largest among Leprino’s 10 U.S. factories — will produce millions of dollars in new revenue for Leprino.
Construction began last month. The first phase is scheduled to open next fall, and then the plant will triple in size by 2012.
The Greeley plant will have a capacity of 7 million pounds of a milk per day — equivalent to current statewide dairy production. Farmers say they will be up to the task of providing sufficient milk for Leprino.
Source: Denver Post