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TILLAMOOK, Ore.—The Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) will double the cheese production capacity at Columbia River Processing Inc., TCCA's Boardman, Ore. facility. TCCA's board of directors and management examined expansion alternatives in Tillamook and Boardman, and chose Boardman as least costly, the company said Monday.

"Our market is continuing to grow and so are our customers in the retail grocery business," said Jim McMullen, president and CEO of TCCA. Our customers expect us to grow with them in order to meet their needs. Expanding TCCA's cheese making capabilities insures that we can keep up with our customers' growing demands. It will also secure the future of the Tillamook brand."

George Allen, TCCA chairman of the board, added: "We [the board] felt that expanding TCCA's processing facility will also protect the membership's potential to grow and expand our dairy businesses. Expanding in Boardman will grow the Tillamook brand, in turn letting the membership meet our milk expansion needs. We also felt that it would protect dairying as a way of life for our future generations, and enhance opportunities for our employees and everyone associated with TCCA."

"We are proud that after 95 years we still offer a consistently high quality product to our customers. Growing the Tillamook brand has created opportunities for our cooperative that benefit Tillamook and Morrow counties, as well as Oregon, by providing more jobs both at the cheese plant and at the farm level," said McMullen.

Columbia River Processing, Inc. is TCCA's satellite cheese plant located in Boardman at the Port of Morrow's industrial park. The TCCA board of directors voted to construct the satellite plant in December 1999; it was dedicated in September 2001. Its production capacity doubled TCCA's cheesemaking capabilities. The planned expansion will effectively increase TCCA's cheese processing capacity by 35%.