How do we determine what a great plant is? Is it an exciting design? New technologies or automation? Sustainability efforts? Perhaps, it is a processor that continues to process, as well as protect a decades-long family recipe.

Everyone has a different opinion. For me, it is something who passes my “eye test,” which is hard to explain or quantify. That certainly was the case last year, when we honored Michigan’s Hudsonville Ice Cream as our 2023 Plant of the Year.
 
I commented then that Hudsonville could have been named our 2023 “Facility of the Year.” This is based upon the beautiful design of its entire headquarters, including individual offices, a large conference room, a lunchroom featuring a fireplace, tables, and restaurant-style booths, a video display wall that shares key topics for the week, celebrates birthdays, employee anniversaries, other items of interest, and more.

Our 2024 Plant of the Year, HP Hood’s facility in Batavia, N.Y., definitely passes my eye test as well. I visited Batavia in late July and met with the HP Hood team. The facility is truly impressive, as I saw lactaid and private-label products being processed while meeting an incredibly knowledgeable and friendly team, including CEO Gary Kaneb. 

Perhaps as impressive as the facility itself, which HP Hood purchased in 2017, was its commitment to employee safety. In most every place I walked throughout the 458,000-square-foot plant, safety signage was pervasive, which proves that HP Hood truly cares about its employees and the quality of its products.

“The safety culture at the plant is supported by two pillars: One is a response to lagging safety data, and one is a proactive embrace of leading safety performance, both of which are owned and anchored by the plant’s front-line supervisors,” the company noted in its “Plant of the Year” application.

The HP Hood trip was not the only trek I made in July. I proved to be a world traveler, earning plenty of frequent flyer miles when visiting Irish dairies that month as well. It was a wonderful trip, as Bord Bia, the Irish Dairy Food Board, whisked me around the country to visit its own headquarters, as well as four Irish dairy processors: Killowen Farm, Tirlán, Carbery Net Zero Farm and Lakeland Dairies. 

Please see our stories on both HP Hood and the Ireland trip, as well as the many other great stories this issue offers. 

I want to conclude with a big announcement that Dairy Foods is turning 125 years old in November. One-hundred-and-twenty-five years is quite an accomplishment, something few magazines in any industry can boast. To put it in perspective, 125 years exceeds the oldest person alive today, Maria Branyas, 117-years-old at press time, as well as the oldest person to ever live: Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who passed away at the age of 122 in 1997. 

Please look forward to a retrospective in November, which I’m sure will be a great trip down memory lane.