Canada’s biggest dairy co-operative is expanding its reach further into the U.S. market by buying a nearly-new cheese factory in Iowa.
Quebec-based Agropur announced Thursday its Wisconsin subsidiary Trega Foods has bought Green Meadows Foods at Hull, about 85 km north of Sioux City, for an undisclosed sum.
Green Meadows, which launched its operations in November last year, is set up to process about 400 million litres of milk annually.
According to Agropur, the new plant employs about 85 people making over 35 million kg of cheese including over 10 American and Italian varieties and extracting just over 20 million kg of dried whey powders.
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“Green Meadows Foods is a natural fit with the product line and culture of Trega Foods,” Trega president Doug Simon said in a release, adding that Trega plans to “integrate and grow the Hull, Iowa facility to its fullest capacity.”
Simon has reported to Agropur’s cheese and functional products division since Agropur bought Trega in January last year.
“This most recent acquisition represents a great fit with our current operations and will allow us to keep building a strong foundation for continued growth,” Agropur CEO Pierre Claprood said.
Agropur has been expanding through acquisitions recently, buying a UHT-milk processing plant at Grand Rapids, Mich., and Minnesota dairy firm Schroeder Milk. It also bought Laitiere Lamothe, a Quebec dairy company, in March but closed those facilities permanently last month.
Green Meadows in March had signed a letter of intent with European dairy firm Arla Foods to develop the Iowa plant’s whey processing business, with the expectation that Arla would ultimately buy Green Meadows’ whey operations.
Green Meadows last year had also signed an agreement to source milk from Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes, and also had a marketing agreement with Wisconsin’s Masters Gallery Foods to buy all the cheese Green Meadows produced.
