Walmart adds processing in Indiana
Walmart, the US’s largest grocer, will 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, the company says.
Indiana governor Mike Pence notes, “Last year, Walmart opened a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center in Plainfield, creating more than 300 jobs, and today we celebrate 200 more. I’m proud to welcome this expansion as we work to create quality jobs for Hoosiers and support our Indiana farmers.”
With construction anticipated to begin this summer, Walmart will build a more than 250,000-square-foot milk processing plant, which is expected to be one of the largest in the industry. The 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,” says 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.”
The 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. With more than 1,200 Hoosier dairies, Indiana produced more than four billion pounds of milk last year – 348 million pounds in December alone – but approximately four million pounds are exported every day.
Indiana is home to 21 dairy processing plants and 14 farmstead operations, helping the Hoosier state rank number 14 in the US in milk production and second in ice cream production. On average, Indiana has roughly 184,000 milk cows that can produce 61 pounds of milk per day, accounting for nearly 2% of total US milk production.
