Daisy Brand, the nation’s largest manufacturer of sour cream, plans to expand its new Wooster facility, adding about 80 jobs.
The 100,000-square-foot expansion — allowing for cottage cheese production — will cost an estimated roughly $45 million to build. The company has said it will spend approximately $97 million more on machinery and equipment for the addition, according to Wooster city officials.
Daisy Brand began making sour cream at the Wooster facility in September. The plant is the first Daisy production operation east of the Mississippi River.
The sour-cream operation employs about 60 people; payroll there is expected to grow to about 90 jobs by the end of this year or the beginning of next year.
“Wooster continues to be attractive for Daisy to invest,” the company said, “as the location, employees and milk supply allow us to produce quality products for our consumers.”
Wayne, a rural county with roughly 115,000 residents, is the top milk producer among Ohio’s 88 counties. Jonathan Millea, Wooster’s development coordinator, said Daisy, providing it receives proposed financial incentives, plans to break ground later this year.
In 2014, Daisy Brand, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, broke ground on the $116-million sour-cream facility that transformed a Wooster cornfield into the company’s third production facility in the nation.
State and local tax credits helped land the 200,000-square-foot plant in northeast Wooster — at Akron and Geyers Chapel roads.
Wooster, the Wayne Economic Development Council, Team Northeast Ohio and JobsOhio developed an incentive package for the expansion that was revealed Monday.
Additionally, the city has proposed a Job Creation Tax Credit that would allow for a credit on city income taxes paid for new employees.
Beacon Journal staff writer Rick Armon contributed to this report.