#7 in October

Mountaintop Beverage – A Game Changer #2

 

If you’re traveling north on I-79 in Monongalia County just past the I-68 split and look to your right as you cross the Mon River, you’ll see a big chunk of mountainside is gone. In its place is a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility called Mountaintop Beverage. The 330,000 square foot factory, in the upper part of the Morgantown Industrial Park, was dreamed up by partners Jeff Sokal and Doug Jantzi. The native Western New Yorkers were looking for their next business venture when they sat down with Scott Higgins and Bill McCabe of the American Dairy Association Mideast to discuss the idea of building a manufacturing facility.

Meanwhile, back in West Virginia, newly elected Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt hosted a series of dairy summits in 2017. With fewer than 60 dairy farms left in the Mountain State, it was critical for him to meet with those farmers, state and national dairy leaders as well as others in the dairy community about how to rebuild the industry. That started the conversation about how to move the dairy industry forward. Eventually, Higgins helped connect WVDA Deputy Commissioner Joe Hatton and then-WVDA Business Development Director Cassey Bowden to Sokal and Jantzi.

“We saw the dairy infrastructure was crumbling, which is a sad thing. It’s happening in a lot of areas of the country,” explains Sokal.

However, he, Jantzi and three other investors saw an opportunity in West Virginia and decided to build a manufacturing facility that would benefit the state’s workforce, re-grow the dairy industry and provide shelf-stable dairy products to rural schools, food pantries and food banks.

“I’m from Buffalo, New York,” says Sokal. “It’s a blue-collar town. When I’m in West Virginia, I feel a lot like I’m home – the people, the culture, a lot of hard–working folks. They get stuff done! We started looking at the geographic reach of Morgantown being right in the middle of the Eastern U.S. population. For us, transportation was a big deal. It’s a blue-collar area where people aren’t afraid of putting in a hard day’s work. That was critical for us. Putting the project here versus Pittsburgh or central Ohio, we could make a bigger difference here than elsewhere. That was important for my business partners, our customers and I as we contemplated doing business for the right reasons – making an impact with our project.”

Sokal, Jantzi and their partners raised $200 million to start construction on Phase One of the project. The site development process entailed moving over 1.7mm cubic yards of earth in just over four months. It took 250 construction workers on-site daily to get the job done. Now, the facility is near completion. On September 16, a topping out ceremony was held at the site as the last beam was MOUNTAINTOP BEVERAGE – A GAME CHANGER – set in place.

“This is one of the largest business development projects West Virginia has ever seen,” says Commissioner Leonhardt. “Mountaintop will directly create 300-400 jobs and another 300-600 jobs downstream. At the same time, they will show West Virginia can be home to food and beverage manufacturing. We are excited to have them!”

Production is set to begin in the first quarter of 2023. The plant will produce milk-based products for several name brand companies, as well as protein shakes, iced coffees and plant-based beverages. But they won’t be using the pasteurization process that most of us are familiar with. Instead, the plant will use aseptic, shelf-stable processing.

“The typical pasteurization process is heating milk to 160 degrees for 15 seconds. That’s part of our process, but we take it a step further to ultra-high temperature processing. We heat the milk to 280 to 290 degrees for a few seconds and then flash cool it back down. So, in terms of the final product, it’s a gentle process. It renders the product commercially sterile, but it doesn’t alter the flavor,” explains Sokal. “The second step is what happens on the packaging side. An extended shelf-life packaging option would extend the shelf life of aseptic milk to roughly 60 to 70 days compared to a pasteurized product that will last 21 days. But then, if you combine the thermal process with aseptic packaging that is sterilized, the shelf life of that fluid is now up to a year.”

Sokal says the aseptic process benefits more than just the average shopper picking up a gallon of milk from the cooler of their local store.

“That will allow dairy products to go where refrigeration often can’t because of cost or availability. Think about food banks where you have central distribution points like Mountaineer or Huntington Food Banks, for instance. From there it goes to churches or smaller food banks, food pantries and different outlets. If it can go to those outlets or rural schools with the spoons and the napkins, it’s going to be a lot more economical to get the product there than it would be if you have to try and support refrigerated delivery,” Sokal says.

Many food pantries and rural schools don’t have the capacity to refrigerate enough milk to last a week and delivering pasteurized milk via a refrigerated truck is not only cost prohibitive but sometimes impossible. With aseptic products, you can deliver milk without refrigeration. The product can then set on a shelf until it’s needed. The only thing left to do is pop it in the refrigerator when it’s time to use. Sokal says you cannot taste the difference.

“A lot of kids have already had aseptic milk products. The national organic milk brands are in an aseptic format. The same goes for most chocolate milk products. It tastes the same as pasteurized milk,” says Sokal.

Mountaintop has pre-sold the 330,000 square feet of factory space to manufacture a wide range of products, including several big, name brands. That means they will be at full capacity on their first day of business. The goal is to source all their milk from West Virginia, but for now, it’s just not possible. More than a hundred million pounds of milk will go through the factory over the next year. That’s more than West Virginia dairy farmers currently produce. Initially, Mountaintop will source their additional requirements from neighboring states

“With a lot of these old dairy farms [in West Virginia], their infrastructure is gone. It’s not just the barns and equipment that’s gone but the hauling infrastructure as well,” explains Sokal. “There is a lot of work to be done.”

That’s where the WVDA is stepping in. Deputy Commissioner Hatton says the department is working with existing dairy farmers to increase milk quality, ramp up milk production and help establish new dairy operations in West Virginia.

“We are currently seeking industry expertise to help when it comes to dairy business development, dairy financing and equipment technical expertise,” explains Hatton.

The WVDA and Mountaintop are also working to understand shipping challenges by partnering with supply chain professionals to optimize shipping dairy supplies and dairy products.

“With higher fuel and labor costs, it doesn’t make sense for trucks carrying the same commodities to pass each other on our roads,” says Hatton. “Efficiency is key to profitability.”

Meanwhile, Sokal says plans are already in the works for Phase Two of the project.

“This plant has the potential to grow to about 750,000 square feet when it’s fully finished. The need for dairy will be there for decades. This is an investable proposition for folks that want to get into dairy farming or expand their existing dairy farms,” he stresses.

Mountaintop is currently looking to hire more than 100 workers by early 2023 on top of the 30 staff members already on board.

“This is a high technology food manufacturing facility,” says Hatton. “These will be steady, gainful careers, in clean manufacturing. And these are agriculture jobs.”

Mountaintop Beverage posts active, openings on the Mountaintop Beverage LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/ company/mountaintopbeverage).

“Folks are encouraged to actively follow our page and apply to positions of interest,” says Sokal. Prior experience in manufacturing is preferred but not necessary. We are proud of the 30 hard-working, passionate team members we have already recruited and are excited to add to our growing, dedicated team.”

When the plant completes Phase Two of construction, Mountaintop Beverage would employ anywhere from 300 to 400 workers. On top of that would be hundreds of downstream jobs in farming and transportation. Mountaintop and the WVDA are working with Governor Jim Justice on a proposed exit off I-79 that would direct traffic to the upper part of the Morgantown Industrial Park and Mountaintop Beverage. It will also provide access to additional shovel ready sites for further economic development.

“We couldn’t have done this without the support of the USDA, Scott Higgins and his team at Dairy Mideast and the State of West Virginia,” says Sokal.

All parties involved agree Mountaintop is a game changer for West Virginia’s economy and its workforce.