By Bill Coates | Casa Grande Dispatch
An estimated 250 people crowded into the main banquet hall of The Property Conference Center on Thursday and toasted the arrival of Casa Grande’s newest industry — the 99,000-square-foot Ehrmann Arizona Dairy plant.
Ehrmann will specialize in the production of Greek yogurt. The plant, just west of The Property, is expected to begin operating Oct. 28. When production is ramped up, some 6,000 cups of yogurt an hour are expected to roll off the line.
The festivities at The Property followed tours of the massive plant. At the reception, speakers included the partners in Ehrmann Arizona, run jointly by Ehrmann AG of Germany and Commonwealth Dairy of Vermont.
Christian Ehrmann, executive director and a third-generation owner of Ehrmann, thanked the city of Casa Grande for its sup- port.
“I wish all of us … a successful start and success into the future,” Ehrmann said.
Casa Grande City Councilwoman Lisa Fitzgibbons said, “This is the perfect example of businesses and the city coming together.”
Not everything is in place, but the city was working on it, she said, likely referring to an unfinished sewer main that will service the yogurt plant as well as the newly renovated Franklin Foods cream cheese plant on the other side of The Property, carrying wastes from production.
Paul Rovey, president of United Dairymen of Arizona, said Ehrmann will be one of four large dairy production facilities in the Casa Grande area. The cooperative will supply milk to Ehrmann, as it does now for Franklin Foods, which started production in late August.
“It kind of makes us the dairy capital of the Southwest,” Rovey said.
