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Idaho cheese giant to a major buyer of state's dairy products

T.J. Burnham 1, Editor, Western Farmer-Stockman

December 14, 2014

3 Min Read

Twin Falls, Idaho-based Glanbia Foods is building a $82 million expansion project in the south state expected to create 50 new jobs

Claiming to be the world's largest American style cheese manufacturer, Glanbia plays a pivotal role for Idaho dairymen looking for markets.

Glanbia, one of the largest manufacturers of whey ingredients, will construct new plants in Twin Falls and Gooding, says the expansion is "strongly aligned to our strategy of adding further value to our whey stream," according to Daragh Maccabee, Glanbia CFO.

"The company considered various options and locations for these new activities but ultimately came to the conclusion that Idaho was the right location. We have a long track record in Idaho, and the support of the state and local communities was instrumental in our choice of Idaho for renewed expansion." The company is approved to receive a Tax Reimbursement Incentive credit of 23 percent for 10 years, which was matched by the local community.  The Gooding County Board of County Commissioners approved a property tax exemption on the incremental new capital investment.

Gambia processes more than 23 million pounds of milk every day into cheese from three manufacturing facilities in Idaho and New Mexico, where more than 1,000  workers are employed by the company.

The company, which markets 830 million pounds of cheese and 170 million pounds of value-added whey to more than 30 nations, is building the new plants to help meet the following criteria listed by the firm  in the whey market:

•The expansion of high end whey protein production in Gooding to include whey protein isolate.

Creation of a center of excellence for in-house blending and agglomeration of high-end nutritional products.

•Introduction of lactoferrin production to the Twin Falls location and the internal drying capacity expanded to cater to both the Twin Falls and Gooding production.

The firm will pay for a 30 MW energy sub-station on current Glanbia land at the Gooding facility, and will free up 12MW of existing capacity for alternative uses in the area.

The new facilities will be fully operational by 2016.

"This is yet another exciting announcement for the Magic Valley to see one of its own home-grown companies expand and create new jobs," says Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter.  "We are particularly thrilled that we were once again able to leverage the Tax Reimbursement Incentive to support the growth of an existing Idaho company."

The company has been headquartered in Southern Idaho for 25 years processes a third of Idaho's milk production, and has experienced what Maccabee calls "significant growth."

 "The entire Southern Idaho region celebrates this announcement today along with the addition of more than 40 good paying jobs," says Jan Rogers, executive director, Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization).

Southern Idaho, known as America's Most Diverse Food Basket, also celebrated a  $15 million Glanbia headquarters and Cheese Innovation Center and Chobani's $450 million yogurt plant.  The region has also recently attracted investments from food giants Clif Bar, Monsanto and Frulact Group.

About the Author(s)

T.J. Burnham 1

Editor, Western Farmer-Stockman

T.J. Burnham has covered western agriculture for 42 years. A University of Michigan journalism program grad, he worked for The Sacramento Bee for 15 years before moving into specialty farm magazine writing. He has been on the Farm Progress staff for 10 years.

"A lot of my uncles back in Michigan were farmers, but my interest was primarily to become a hot shot city desk reporter. Once I was given a job at the Bee on the metro desk, they told me that they’d hired too many new reporters, and half of us had to go. However, they said there was an opening in the newspaper’s ag division, and if I worked there until the probationary period was over, I could be reassigned to general reporting. I took the job, but by the time the probation period was ended, I found I enjoyed covering ag so much that I never asked to go back to the city side.”

T.J. joined Farm Progress as a California Farmer reporter, then became editor of the Western Farmer-Stockman. He has earned a reputation in the West as a strong source of direct seed information, and has affiliated Western Farmer-Stockman as the official magazine of the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association.

His wife, Sally, writes for the magazine and helps with bookwork concerning freelance writers from the eight western state arena which the magazine serves.

T.J. likes hiking and fishing, and dabbles in woodworking projects. He also enjoys gardening and photography.

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