Darigold’s Meridian office part of greater expansion efforts

As one of the nation’s largest dairy producers, Darigold has been a consistent presence and key player in the Idaho dairy market since about 1940.

During the past year, the prominent Seattle-based dairy brand expanded its Idaho operations with a new office based in Meridian. According to Chris Arnold, vice president of corporate communications, the company’s latest Treasure Valley hub is producing well, with about 30 employees now staffing the newest work site.

“The central aim in taking space in Idaho was to spread our business support functions out, putting some of them closer to farms and production facilities elsewhere in our operating region, and to allow us to recruit from a talent pool that may be more interested in careers in the ag sector,” Arnold said.

The Meridian Darigold office also serves as a hub for its business to consumer group, in part, Arnold said, due to the number of products Darigold produces within the Gem State.

“We also thought it made sense to spread out some of our professional support functions to put them closer to some of our other production facilities and member farms, rather than having all of that here in Seattle.”

Darigold operates both a consumer products division and a business-to-business division. For consumers, the dairy brand produces milk, butter, cottage cheese and sour cream.

On the business side, Darigold supplies private label milk and butter for retail partners, as well as butter and cheese for institutional customers, such as large-packaged goods companies and food service businesses, and even powdered milk products used in a variety of childhood nutrition products.

Darigold is owned by nearly 300 family-owned farms in Washington, Oregon and Montana, including 40 Northwest Dairy Association (NDA) member farms in Idaho. NDA serves as the processing and marketing arm of the operation, producing more than 160 million pounds of milk per month.

Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association (IDA) believes Darigold’s local area office expansion this past year signifies a great growth opportunity for the company, and a productive move that serves the entire Idaho dairy industry.

“Whenever you are seeing dairy companies invest in the state of Idaho, whether it’s human resources or financial resources, it’s exciting because it speaks to the continued economic driver that dairy is to the state of Idaho and the future success of our business,” Naerebout said.

With 325 dairy farms and roughly 700,000 head of dairy cattle statewide, the IDA serves as the prime agency for dairy production in Idaho, the state’s No. 1 agricultural commodity.

“When you look at the trajectory of the dairy industry in Idaho, and the fact that we continue to grow at a slow and steady pace, it’s recognition of the continued growth and strength of the dairy industry here,” he said.

In Meridian, Darigold is continuing its efforts to recruit for several positions, including a senior manager of Digital and E-Commerce Marketing, a senior brand manager, as well as support roles in both human resources and IT.

“We also have a business development team there in Idaho, so they would employ personnel in both sales and sales support roles,” Arnold said. “We will continue to expand the team in Idaho where it makes sense.”

Much of Darigold’s strong Idaho presence, resulting in the brand becoming a “major player” in the Gem State, stemmed from a 1991 merger with the Dairymen’s Creamery Association. It was then the company acquired most of its infrastructure.

Including the latest office site in Meridian, Darigold maintains production facilities in Boise, Caldwell and Jerome.