As part of his "Dairy Month" tour of Wisconsin in June, Governor Scott Walker stopped by BelGioioso Cheese's Green Bay plant to acknowledge the company's recently announced plans to expand the facility.
“When you’ve got a cheesemaker expanding like this, it’s a sign that the dairy industry is alive and well in the state of Wisconsin,” Walker stated at the event, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
BelGioioso, already a major cheese presence across the state, is currently growing an existing plant at its headquarters location to include a new space that will mainly be used as a distribution point in Green Bay. The company stated the new space signals that all Wisonsin-produced BelGioioso cheese will now pass-through this facility before hitting the market.
The expansion, which has a completion goal slated for the end of the year, will help the company "become more efficient in shipping and serving customers," said Vice President Mark Schleitwiler.
Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker, credited the state's cheese producers overall as a catalyst for the expansion. He said, “We’ve got a booming dairy industry, and really driving that are cheesemakers,” Walker said. “We’ve seen tremendous growth in cheese production.”
The Governor also pointed out that the state of Wisconsin produces 25 percent of all cheese in the country, and in 2015 produced 3 billion tons of it in 2015, along with 29 million tons of milk. He also said that the industry alone supplies about $43 billion to the state's economy on average every year. “We’re pleased to have the dairy industry as such a prominent part of our state’s economy, and particularly driving that: our state’s cheesemakers,” Walker said, according to the Press-Gazette.
The Governor also acknowledged BelGioioso for the 700 jobs it has produced for the state's people and their families. "They’re growing jobs with good benefits. They’re the kind of jobs we want in Wisconsin,” he continued. Walker also stated that he working to export more cheese out of Wisconsin to create more jobs in the state. See footage of the event in the video below:
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