US cheese manufacturer, Bongards Creameries, has unveiled a $125 million expansion plan for its Perham, Minnesota, facility.
The expansion will increase the total plant capacity to 5.5 million pounds of milk per day, marking a significant 30% increase.
The investment includes expanding the facility’s milk intake bays, cheese packaging equipment, whey drying and packaging equipment, whey warehousing and wastewater treatment.
Bongards Creameries is a farmer-owned co-op that was formed in 1908 in the south-eastern Minnesota town of Bongards in the US. The global cheese supplier is said to produce “hundreds of millions of pounds” of natural cheese, process cheese and whey each year.
According to Bongards, the company previously completed a significant expansion of Perham’s plant capacity in 2015, followed by an expansion of the warehouse capacity in 2022. Bongards replaced the existing cheese vats and evaporator of the site this year.
“With this latest investment, we will be able to continue supporting the growth of our business, allow our current farmer-owners to expand, and allow us to bring on new members,” said Daryl Larson, Bongards CEO. “In order to increase our milk intake by nearly a third, many aspects of the production process need to be expanded.”
Work on the project is set to commence next month, with a projected completion date of June 2025.
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