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Tag: alpina

GCEDC approves PILOT reassignment for dairy cooperative

The Genesee County Economic Development Center has approved reassigning the terms of previously approved payments in lieu of taxes for Upstate Niagara Cooperative.

The company recently announced it had acquired the former Alpina Foods manufacturing facility at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. Under the PILOT agreements, local taxing jurisdictions will receive $378,010 in revenues over the life of the PILOT.

Upstate Niagara Cooperative plans to invest $22 million in the facility to meet its operational needs.

“Genesee County has benefited greatly from the repeated investments by food and beverage companies into dairy production facilities,” GCEDC Chairman Paul Battaglia said in a statement. “The Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park provides excellent opportunities for the Upstate Niagara cooperative and businesses in the dairy food industries to succeed.”

The Upstate Niagara Cooperative is a farmer-owned cooperative of 327 dairy farms throughout Western New York. Brands produced by the cooperative include Upstate Farms, Bison, Intense Milk and Valley Farms.

The 40,000-square-foot facility sits on 10 acres with an adjacent 10-acre development parcel in Batavia. Other dairy manufacturers in the park include HP Hood LLC and O-AT-KA Milk Products Cooperative Inc.

The GCEDC board also approved a loan from the Growing the Agricultural Industry Now! fund for New York Craft Malt. The $82,000 GAIN loan is part of a $206,968 investment for the purchase of new equipment and building improvements at the company’s Bank Street Road facility in Batavia.

The project is expected to create two jobs.

“New York Craft Malt’s project builds on our successful GAIN loan fund program, which supports the growth of agricultural products and businesses in Genesee County,” GCEDC President and CEO Steve Hyde said. “Low-interest GAIN loans have enabled producers to invest over $1 million into dairy, maple and malting operations.”

The New York Craft Malt project is the fifth in Genesee County to receive a GAIN loan. Previous recipients include Cottonwood Farms, Sandvoss Farms and Junior’s Maple.

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Former Alpina facility sold to dairy cooperative

The Upstate Niagara Cooperative has purchased the former Alpina Foods Inc. manufacturing facility in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park for $22.5 million.

The former Alpina Foods LLC facility in Batavia.
The former Alpina Foods LLC facility in Batavia.

The Upstate Niagara Cooperative is a farmer-owned cooperative of 327 dairy farms throughout Western New York. Brands produced by the cooperative include Upstate Farms, Bison, Intense Milk and Valley Farms.

“We’re very excited to have finalized our purchase of this manufacturing plant in Batavia,” Cooperative CEO Larry Webster said in a statement Wednesday. “As a dairy cooperative owned by farm families throughout the region, this acquisition is located central to our member milk supply.”

The 40,000-square-foot facility sits on 10 acres with an adjacent 10 acre development parcel in Batavia. Other dairy manufacturers in the park include HP Hood LLC and O-AT-KA Milk Products Cooperative Inc. The Alpina sale was facilitated by Harry David & Co.

Alpina, a South American company, broke ground on the facility in 2011 and opened the plant the following year. Alpina made good on its promise to add 50 jobs at the site, and in 2013, with 55 employees, the company announced plans to expand its footprint in the park and bump up its staff count.

But in 2014, the company laid off 32 workers, more than half its staff, as a result of a contract loss. By 2016, Alpina was growing again and had planned a $1.1 million expansion project at the Batavia site. Alpina produced yogurt at the Batavia plant.

The business was to receive a more than $15,000 sales tax exemption and property tax exemption of nearly $63,000 through the Genesee County Economic Development Center. The 3,200-square-foot expansion was expected to create four jobs and retain 23.

In January of this year, Alpina abruptly shut its doors, citing the loss of a co-packaging contract. The manufacturer had roughly 35 staffers at the time.

The Alpina closure was not the first at the Ag Park. In 2012, PepsiCo Inc. and Theo Muller Gmbh, Germany’s largest privately owned dairy business, announced they would open a joint venture in the park. The $200 million deal was to have created 186 local jobs.

Muller Quaker Dairy LLC opened its 363,000-square-foot facility for producing Greek yogurt the following year. Slated to produce roughly 122,000 yogurt cups an hour, the facility was one of the largest yogurt producers nationwide. In December 2015 Muller Quaker closed the plant, leaving 200 people without jobs. HP Hood purchased the facility and is in the second phase of a $205 million renovation and investment at the park that includes a more than 100,000-square-foot expansion that will accommodate some 230 staffers.

For the Alpina plant, local ownership may be the key to success.

“This production-ready facility is only a few years old and represents an investment by our member owners toward continued and long-term growth for our cooperative,” Webster said. “We look forward to adding manufacturing jobs within the Genesee County community while offering additional products and manufacturing capabilities to our customers.”

The Upstate Niagara Cooperative did not say when the plant will reopen or what products will be manufactured at the facility.

“The Genesee County Economic Development Center is pleased that the Upstate Niagara Cooperative is strengthening their investment into producing excellent products and great careers at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park,” GCEDC President and CEO Steve Hyde said. “With our tradition of agriculture and strong farm families, as well as our infrastructure assets, shovel-ready sites and workforce talent, Genesee County is truly a dairy, food and beverage powerhouse.”

The cooperative was recognized earlier this year by the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce as its 2019 Agricultural Organization of the Year.

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Alpina closes Batavia manufacturing facility

Alpina Foods Inc. on Friday abruptly shuttered its Batavia facility, citing the loss of a co-packaging contract.

Alpina Foods Inc. on Friday abruptly shuttered its Batavia facility, citing the loss of a co-packaging contract.
Alpina Foods Inc.

The company has not released a statement and a call to the facility was unanswered, but the Genesee County Economic Development Center confirmed the closure. Alpina also did not file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the state Department of Labor. GCEDC spokesman Jim Krencik said the company employed roughly 35 people.

“While this is extremely disappointing news, the GCEDC will be diligent in marketing and promoting the facility to other agricultural businesses,” GCEDC officials said in a statement. “This was similar to our approach in marketing and promoting a former yogurt manufacturing site, which resulted in bringing HP Hood to our community, and with it, further economic investment and eventually the hiring of hundreds of employees.”

In 2017, HP Hood LLC announced plans to occupy the former Dairy Farmers of America plant in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park in Batavia, with the intent to invest more than $200 million over several years and create 230 jobs over five years. The facility previously had been occupied by Muller Quaker Dairy LLC.

In 2012, PepsiCo Inc., the world’s second-largest snack and beverage company, and Theo Muller Gmbh, Germany’s largest privately owned dairy business, announced they would open a joint venture in the Batavia Agri-Business Park. The deal, worth more than $200 million, was to have created 186 local jobs.

Muller Quaker Dairy LLC opened its 363,000-square-foot facility for producing Greek yogurt the following year. Slated to produce roughly 122,000 yogurt cups an hour, the facility was one of the largest yogurt producers nationwide. In December 2015 Muller Quaker closed the plant, leaving 200 people without jobs.

Alpina opened its $20 million, 40,000-square-foot plant in the park in 2011. In 2014, the company laid off some 32 workers, more than half its staff, as a result of a contract loss. By 2016, Alpina was growing again and had planned a $1.1 million expansion project at the Batavia site. Alpina produced yogurt at the Batavia plant.

The business was to receive a more than $15,000 sales tax exemption and property tax exemption of nearly $63,000 through the GCEDC. The 3,200-square-foot expansion was expected to create four jobs and retain 23.

GCEDC officials said they would work with public and private sector partners to assist displaced workers following Friday’s closure. In addition to HP Hood, the Genesee Valley Ag Park houses Marktec Products Inc., which provides marking and labeling products, as well as packaging solutions for a number of industries including food processing.

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
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