144-Year-Old Dairy Products Maker Forced to Relocate Due to Plant Closure

The company was established in 1880.

Transcript

Sinton Dairy, a company that was established in Colorado Springs in 1880, revealed plans to close its 9-acre manufacturing facility at the end of the year. As a result, 64 workers, including manufacturing supervisors and hourly workers and front-office staff, will lose their jobs.

According to Colorado Springs Gazette, Sinton’s owner, LALA U.S., announced that the plant is set to close on December 30, putting an end to the facility that had annually produced 3 million pounds of sour cream, 9 million pounds of cottage cheese, and 220 million pounds of milk.

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However, The Gazette noted that those figures were last reported in 2011, and the plant no longer makes Sinton-branded products. Instead, it manufactures and distributes chocolate and strawberry flavored milk, as well as seasonal eggnog, under LALA’s Promised Land Dairy brand.

The Gazette added that LALA now plans to move production to a co-manufacturing site in West Virginia.

The closure features permanent layoffs for all the facility’s employees, which reportedly includes an undisclosed number of members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 455. LALA stated it intends to provide eligible employees with resources such as a retention bonus and severance benefits.

According to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Sinton Dairy was started by brothers Melvin and George Sinton. They began in 1880 with 12 red cows to produce 14 quarts of milk, delivered daily via a horse-drawn wagon for 10 cents.

After introducing pasteurized milk to Colorado Springs in 1907, Sinton Dairy grew by purchasing multiple farms and ranches, transitioned to truck deliveries and relocated to its current plant in 1955.

The company changed ownership over the years, starting with Associated Grocers from 1980 until its bankruptcy seven years later, after which the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative and Sinton’s management took control. LALA later acquired the firm in 2009 and replaced the Sinton name with Promised Land Dairy in 2016 as the company shifted to ultra-pasteurized milk with a long shelf life.

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