The United States’ largest grocer, Walmart, has announced plans to establish a milk processing plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, creating more than 200 jobs ranging from milk processing to transportation by the end of 2017.
With construction anticipated to begin this summer, Walmart will build a milk processing plant covering more than 250,000 square feet, which is expected to be one of the largest in the industry. The highly efficient plant will leverage the latest technologies to produce Great Value and Member’s Mark white and chocolate milk for more than 600 Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Northern Kentucky. Walmart estimates that milk processing will begin in the summer of 2017.
“By operating our own plant and working directly with the dairy supply chain in the Midwest, we’ll further reduce operating costs and pass those savings on to our customers so that they can save money,” said Tony Airoso, senior vice president of sourcing strategy for Walmart US. “This facility is an example of how we are always finding efficiencies within the supply chain to deliver everyday low prices and high quality groceries.”
Today’s news comes on the heels of Indiana’s 2015 dairy strategy, commissioned by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), to grow the state’s industry by increasing the volume of dairy processing and creating market opportunities for expanded dairy production. Indiana produced more than 4 billion pounds of milk in 2015 – 348 million pounds in December alone – but approximately 4 million pounds are exported every day.
“This is tremendous news for Indiana and not only affirms our dairy strategy is working, but also that our business climate and geographic location is conducive to economic development in the agriculture industry,” said Ted McKinney, director of the ISDA. “I applaud Walmart’s decision and commitment to support Indiana’s dairy farmers and for growing this robust, vital industry in our state.”
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