Westby Cooperative Creamery Expands for Distribution Center, Offices

Westby Cooperative Creamery broke ground to make room for offices and a new distribution center, located northwest of its Westby, Wis., headquarters. The distribution center will total 10,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space for manufactured dairy food products and include 1,000 pallet spaces in five-high racking; the offices will contain 6,000 square feet of space for business operations. This expansion is expected to be completed by January 2012.

Alpina Foods Opens First U.S. Plant

Alpina Foods, a leading dairy producer in South America, opened its first specialty yogurt manufacturing plant in the United States. The new plant is scheduled to create 50 jobs at the new dairy manufacturing plant, constructed in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park in Batavia, N.Y. Alpina runs nine industrial facilities across Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador and maintains presence in more than 20 countries.

Friendly’s Enters Chapter 11

Friendly Ice Cream Corp., the Wilbraham, Mass., operator of Friendly’s restaurants and a nationwide distributor of ice cream products, and its subsidiaries filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Friendly’s has secured approximately $70 million in debtor-in-possession financing, which, along with the company’s cash flow, will provide the working capital necessary to meet its ongoing obligations during the restructuring. Nearly 424 Friendly’s restaurants will be open for business as usual during the company’s financial restructuring with no impact to manufacturing and distribution operations. The company also expects to continue paying employee salaries and benefits, meet the needs of its guests and retail customers and honor all gift cards.

Wisconsin Dairy Auction Raises $39,000

Dairy Foods magazine sponsored the Grand Champion ice cream award in the 2011 dairy products contest of the Wisconsin Dairy Products Association, Madison, Wis. The winning products were auctioned at an awards ceremony held during the World Dairy Expo on Oct. 4 in Madison. The auction raised $39,160, a portion of which funds the Dr. Robert L. Bradley scholarship, awarded annually to a student pursuing a career in the dairy industry. John Gifford (right) of Gifford’s Dairy, Skowhegan, Maine, received the Grand Champion trophy from Jim Carper, Dairy Foods editor.