Idaho Business Review
May 29, 2009
Sorrento Lactalis on May 29 broke ground on a multimillion-dollar expansion of its whey drying operations in northeast Nampa
The Canyon County Planning and Zoning Commission in mid-March approved the expansion, which will generate about 250 construction jobs during the 14-month project and 50 new jobs at the plant upon completion, Gallatin Public Affairs said in a release.
Whey, the liquid left after the production of cheese, contains valuable components. The expansion will enable Sorrento to dry the liquid into a powdered product that it will sell.
“This is a very exciting day for this community and our company,” Jean Claude Bruneau, vice president of manufacturing, said. Sorrento is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cheese. The groundbreaking event included state and local elected officials.
Sorrento Lactalis is a U.S. company in the North American division of Groupe Lactalis, one of the world's largest dairy corporations. The company currently has over 140 plants around the world.
The Nampa plant is the largest in the company. In 1999, as part of a U.S. expansion plan, Sorrento Lactalis’s parent company purchased the Swiss Village cheese-manufacturing plant in Nampa from the J.R. Simplot Co. Sorrento since has invested more than $100 million in the Nampa plant, Gallatin Public Affairs said, and has more than doubled employment to above 500. The Nampa plant has an annual payroll of over $25 million.
Sorrento is investing $250 million in annual product purchases in the local economy, according to Gallatin Public Affairs.
In 2009, the Nampa plant expects to purchase more than one billion pounds of mill to be processed into various types of cheeses, predominantly mozzarella and provolone. The company sells to grocery stores, restaurants and manufacturers that include cheese and dairy ingredients in products they produce.
About 65 percent of the milk purchased for the Nampa plant is produced by farmers within 45 miles of the plant. Additional milk is purchased from local and regional milk cooperatives.
