Via Cheese To Buy Lucille Farms

August 8, 2006
Via Cheese To Buy Lucille Farms
Swanton Vermont&Via Cheese, LLC announced today that it has agreed to buy the assets of Lucille Farms, a Swanton based manufacturer of mozzarella cheese which ceased operations in October of 2005. Via intends to restart the plant in October of this year and plans to make mozzarella and other Italian cheeses at the facility. Via is a sister company of Franklin Foods, which annually makes approximately 25,000,000 lbs of cream cheese products in its plant located in Enosburg Falls, Vermont.
According to Jon Gutknecht, CEO of Via, This plant will be the perfect partner for our cream cheese operation and we plan to restore the plant to full scale production of premium mozzarella cheese in the coming months. Gutknecht, who is also CEO of Franklin Foods, stated that Via is an independent concern and will be operated as a separate company from Franklin Foods. He expects the two companies to work closely together to pursue joint efficiencies. The relationship will give Via Cheese immediate access to Franklin Foods national network of customers, distributors and cheese brokers. Via Cheese plans to establish mozzarella production by mid October and sell, initially, under the Lucille Farms brand. A plant expansion and production modernization project will begin in October with a planned completion in March 2007.
Gutknecht noted that Franklin Foods corporate mission is to, Re-invent Cream Cheese and confirmed that the Company has recently been awarded a patent for its Yogurt Cream Cheese and has numerous patents pending for various innovations. He added, Franklin has recently used its technology to partner with several large branded manufacturers and several of the countrys leading grocery chains to make leading edge, modern cream cheese on trend with todays American consumer. In the same vein, Via Cheese will follow a strategy of innovation and invention to create high quality mozzarella cheese and other Italian specialties including Provolone, Asiago, and Fontina. Via will invite experienced members of the former Lucille Farms to join the team.
Via is owned by the stockholders of Franklin Foods together with Erik Brue of Burlington, Vermont who will serve as President of Via Cheese. As Brue described his goals, The highest priority is restoring the plant to commercial scale production. He has begun the hiring process for production employees and will shortly begin a search for a plant manager. Via intends to retain the services of the team, which has kept the plant in operating order during the shutdown. Brue acknowledged that the company has ambitious goals but added that he believes, Via can be a leading manufacturer of premium mozzarella and the leading innovator in other Italian cheeses. It is an exciting mission which will be challenging but also fun.
At former levels of production the plant used in excess of 150,000,000 lbs of milk, (or its equivalent) a year and was the second largest customer of the St. Albans Coop. The plant consumed approximately 6% of the milk produced in Vermont and about 12% of Franklin Countys production. The Chairman of Via, Nordahl Brue, who has been working with the St Albans Coop to secure milk supplies for the venture stated, Restoring this plant to production is very important to the economy of Vermont, and particularly important to the residents and farmers of Franklin County.
The announcement followed a public auction Tuesday at which UPS Capital Business Credit, a secured creditor of Lucille Farms, Inc and Lucille Farms of Vermont, Inc, bought the factory and real estate formerly owned by Lucille. The closing of the Lucille plant last year changed the balance of milk processors locally and the state of Vermont has targeted high volume dairy manufacturers who are significant users of milk and milk solids to balance supply and demand. It is expected that this venture will advance the States objective in a very substantial manner.
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For further information contact Erik Brue at (802) 868-7301