Rocky Mountain Site Selected for Meadow Gold's New Raw Milk Processing Dairy

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Meadow Gold Dairies (Salt Lake City, Utah) a division of Dean Foods Company (NYSE: DF) (Dallas, Texas) has selected a location in Southern Nevada for the site of a new raw milk-processing dairy.

The company has purchased a 25-acre parcel of land in North Las Vegas, Nevada on Donovan Way near Interstate 15 to construct a 60,000 square foot building and install processing and packaging equipment to receive, process and package raw milk from area dairy farmers.

Top area food, beverage, and dairy related construction company, Big D Construction (Salt Lake City, Utah) has been selected by the group to act as the project's general contractor. The subcontractor review and selection process is currently underway.

Construction of the $6+ million dairy plant is scheduled to begin in February of 2003 once all the final permitting issues are resolved. The project's completion date is scheduled sometime during the fall of 2003.

Once the new facility becomes operational an additional 150 to 200 new jobs could be created for the area.

Meadow Gold Dairies operations were acquired by Southern Foods Group of Dallas, Texas in 1997. In January of 2002, Dean Dairy Group, a part of Dean Foods Company, acquired Southern Foods Group. Today, Dean Foods Company is the nation's leading processor and distributor of fresh milk and other dairy products, and a leader in the soyfoods and specialty foods industries. In December 2001, the company changed the name from Suiza Foods Corporation to Dean Foods Company.