Called MWC, the facility is a joint venture between Glanbia Nutritionals and two milk supplier cooperatives, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and Select Milk Producers Inc.
The joint venture was first announced in January 2017, with site selection at St. John’s, Michigan, announced in August 2018. Construction of the $470 million, 375,000-square-foot facility started a month later.
Read: Glanbia, U.S. co-ops to build Michigan cheese facility.
The date of an official grand opening has not been announced. When fully staffed, the plant will employ 260 people.
At the time the partnership was first announced, Michigan was one of the fastest-growing milk-producing states in the U.S. Cow numbers in the state averaged about 380,000 head in 2013-14, growing to about 428,000 head in 2017. That explosive growth stretched processing capacity in the state and resulted in Michigan dairy farmers seeing some of the lowest milk prices in the country. Growth in cow numbers has slowed in recent years, although growth continues and Michigan remains the leading state in terms of milk production per cow.
In determining the site for the new facility, St. Johns was selected due to the growing supply of high-quality milk in the region, the excellent transportation infrastructure, proximity to customers, and the positive business environment and strong local workforce reputation in the region.
Glanbia Nutritionals is a wholly owned subsidiary of Glanbia, a global nutrition company based in Ireland. The company manufactures a wide range of ingredients and cheese and is the leading U.S. producer of American-style cheddar cheese and a global supplier of whey protein isolate. Glanbia will be responsible for day-to-day management and operation of the plant, as well as for cheese and whey product sales.
DFA is the largest dairy co-op in the U.S., with about 13,000 dairy farmer members nationwide and about 350 are in Michigan. Select Milk, which produces over 8.5 billion pounds of milk annually among its 115 farmers across the U.S., has 15 members in Michigan.
Commissioning operations at MWC will take place over the next eight months, moving from the initial capacity of 1 million pounds of milk per day to its designed capacity of 8 million pounds per day. When fully operational, the plant will process more than 2.9 billion pounds of milk annually, manufacturing more than 300 million pounds of block cheese and 20 million pounds of whey protein powders each year.
The types of cheese made at MWC will include cheddar, Monterey Jack and colby jack in 40- and 640-pound blocks. As a business-to-business company, MWC will not produce cheese or whey proteins for direct sales to consumers. All cheese will be shipped to a number of national brands and international food companies for packaging and resale.
The whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate protein powders will be used by sports nutrition companies and food and beverage manufacturers.
In addition to the manufacture of cheese and whey products, a liquid byproduct called permeate will be shipped by pipe across the parking area to a $85 million facility operated by Proliant Dairy Ingredients. Proliant will further process the whey permeate into high-quality dairy ingredients for global distribution into food and feed applications. Proliant is expected to begin receiving permeate from MWC within about a week of production commencing at the site.
Glanbia Nutritionals, DFA and Select Milk Producers are partners in another joint venture in Clovis, New Mexico, called Southwest Cheese, the largest cheese and whey manufacturing facility in the world. Southwest Cheese opened in 2005 and recently went through a $130 million expansion.
One partner initially named as part of the Michigan project, Midwest dairy cooperative Foremost Farms, withdrew from the joint venture late in 2017, purchasing land near Greenville in west-central Michigan for its own milk processing campus.
Read: Foremost Farms taking separate path to build processing capacity in Michigan. 
PHOTO: The first loads of milk arrived at the MWC facility in St. John’s, Michigan, on Oct. 20. Photo courtesy of Glanbia Nutritionals.
-
Dave Natzke
- Editor
- Progressive Dairy
- Email Dave Natzke
