Tag: upstate niagara 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 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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