Dive Brief:
- Agropur Ingredients, which supplies the dairy, bakery, and cheese industries, said it will expand its plant in La Crosse, WI.
- The 34,000 square foot expansion will bring the plant to 12 production lines from 10, and add at least 20 jobs. The cost of the project was not released.
- The news came as Agropur's parent company, dairy cooperative Agropur, announced it was acquiring rival co-op Northumberland Dairy. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Dive Insight:
Agropur is Canada's largest dairy cooperative, and it's increasingly a player in the U.S. as well, generating $3.8 billion Canadian dollars (US $3.54 billion) annually.
Much of the cooperative's growth in recent years has come from two areas: The purchase of dairies like Northumberland in Canada's maritime provinces, and sales from the Wisconsin-based ingredients division, which it purchased in 2011.