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No cows are in sight, but judging from the number of tractor-trailer rigs traveling the white-fence-lined road to and from the Dean Dairy Products plant, the milk-products industry is alive and well.
The Sharpsville, Pa., dairy farm has a long history. In 1934, the Yourga family founded and operated what was then known as the Brookfield Dairy at 30 Seneca Road. Full-line dairy products were manufactured on the premises. In 1966, Hawthorn Mellody purchased the operations and 21 acres of land surrounding the facility. In 1984, the business changed hands again when it became a subsidiary of the Franklin Park, Ill.-based Dean Foods Co., a Fortune 500 broad-based dairy and specialty foods manufacturer.
Nationwide, Dean Foods employs 9,000 and boasts annual sales in excess of $2 billion. Through an aggressive strategy of internal expansion and acquisition, Dean Foods has built a broad network of regional operations that has made the company one of the country's leading dairy companies, and a continuing Success Story.
"Dairy products alone were the business in the Brookfield Dairy days," recalls Frank Chrastina, vice president and general sales manager of the Sharpsville facility. "They did a full line of dairy items. fluid milk products. which includes the lowfat. skims and chocolate milks. They made their own cottage cheese, sour cream, dips, fruit drinks, juices and ice cream."
In 1968, Chrastina says Hawthorn Mellody transferred the ice cream production from Sharpsville to its larger ice cream facility in Bowling Green, Ohio, with the finished product returned to Sharpsville for distribution. Because Hawthorn Melody maintained a large processing plant in Cleveland for cultured products, the cheese and sour cream operations were also moved and incorporated into the Cleveland operations; those products were also returned to Sharpsville for distribution to stores.
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