Breaking News: Ohio dairy to buy Kraft facility
By the South Idaho Press
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:13 AM CST

Just days after the final shutdown of Kraft Foods’ Rupert cheese plant, an Ohio cheesemaker has announced it will purchase the facility and begin producing cheese within a year.

Brewster Dairy, Inc., headquartered in Brewster, Ohio, has reached an agreement to purchase the former Kraft Foods cheese production facility in Rupert, according to a press release issued by Brewster today.

Kraft ended production in the facility over the holidays and had a small crew remaining to perform final shutdown procedures.

As soon as Kraft vacates the facility, Brewster plans to begin installing new cheese manufacturing equipment and expects to begin production of cheese by Nov. 1, the release said.

The release included no details about the number of workers the plant will employ or when hiring will start.

Celebrating its 40th year of production, Brewster is the nation’s largest manufacturer of all natural Swiss cheese. The privately held corporation has production facilities in Brewster, Ohio and Stockton, Ill.

More than 400 dairy farms provide milk to the plants in Ohio and Illinois, which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and produce about 85 million pounds of Swiss cheese a year.