California Dairies in Middle of $90 Million Phase II Expansion

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--California Dairies Incorporated (Visalia, California), the second largest dairy cooperative in the U.S., is in the thick of Phase II expansion of a milk and butter processing plant in Visalia. Just over two years ago, California Dairies started the process of converting a former Frito Lay snack food plant into a facility that would process 5 million pounds of milk per day into various milk powders and butter, including some specialty milk powders. The $135 million facility received its first delivery of milk in February 2008, a month after scheduled startup, and by that time, plans to invest an additional $90 million were already under way. Once operational by the fall of 2009, the second phase expansion will push the plants processing capacity to 10 million pounds per day.

The Visalia facility encompasses 340,000 square feet on a 55-acre site and is equipped with the single largest evaporator-dryer unit in North America.

California Dairies is the largest manufacturer of nonfat milk powder in the nation. In 2007, dairies across California produced a record 40.6 billion pounds of milk, accounting for 21% of the nation's milk.

E. A. Bonelli & Associates (Visalia, California) is providing architectural and design services, while Harris Construction (Fresno, California) is the general contractor of record. Tetra Pak (Vernon Hills, Illinois) is providing packaging equipment and as part of the Tetra Laval Group (Pully, Switzerland) supplying all the valves, process piping and fittings, as well as refrigeration components and the dryer and evaporator units.

View Plant Profile - 1014284
View Project Report - 06005346

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.