Dive Brief:
- Dairy products maker Daisy Brand plans to expand in Iowa by building a $626 million factory in Boone, initially bringing 106 jobs and eventually as many as 255 jobs to the area, according to an April 19 government press release.
- The 750,000-square-foot facility will open due to “demand for the company’s products,” which include its famous sour cream and cottage cheese. The company did not respond to a comment on the timeline.
- The dairy plant will receive support from the state government for the project, including $7 million in direct financial assistance as well as tax benefits from the Iowa Economic Development Authority board.
Dive Insight:
The dairy products maker has existing operations in Garland, Texas, Casa Grande, Arizona and Wooster, Ohio.
“With a third of the nation’s top food manufacturers located in Iowa and 26% of our manufacturing industry attributed to food processing, Iowa and Daisy are a perfect fit,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement.
Iowa was ranked 11th in the country for total milk production as of March. The state has 242,000 milk cows, totaling 520 million pounds of milk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The cottage cheese maker couldn’t expand its operations at a better time. While cottage cheese started getting “trendy” in 2019, sales began to skyrocket last year, increasing 15.9% to $1.2 billion over the 52 weeks that ended May 21, 2023, according to data pulled by the Wall Street Journal. Viral videos with the #cottagecheese on TikTok have also been attributed to the rise in popularity, according to the publication.
Other brands have caught onto the trend, too. Good Culture, another popular cottage cheese maker, won $64 million in funding in 2022. The company said the funding would help scale its manufacturing capabilities and support its expansion into new product lines.