Davisco/Land O' Lakes Selects Contractor for $40 Million Expansion in South Dakota

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Davisco Foods International (Le Sueur, Minnesota), a privately held family owned dairy business, along with joint venture partner Land O' Lakes Incorporated (Saint Paul, Minnesota), a farmer owned food and agricultural cooperative, has commenced with construction activities adjacent to its food ingredients plant in Lake Norden, for a new $40 million mozzarella cheese plant.

Big-D Construction Corporation (Salt Lake City, Utah) has been selected as the design-build contractor for the project, which is expected to take about 13 months to complete.

A 135,000 square foot building addition will be connected to the existing structure and about five million pounds per day of fluid milk will be processed at the plant to produce some 500,000 lbs per day of mozzarella cheese.

The project is being hailed as the largest single free enterprise investment in the history of South Dakota. Lake Norden is located about 75 miles north of Sioux Falls.

Once the project is completed in September of 2003, about 60 additional jobs will be created in addition to the 90 at the existing facility.

Davisco Foods International is a privately held, family-owned, dairy business operating five dairy processing plants in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Idaho. Davisco produces more than 600,000 pounds of cheese daily, and is one of the largest suppliers of cheese to Kraft Foods.

Land O' Lakes, Inc. is a national, farmer-owned food and agricultural cooperative, with sales approaching $7 billion. Land O' Lakes does business in all fifty states and more than fifty countries.