Associated Milk Producers Inc., Minnesota’s 17th-largest private company, is closing a facility in Rochester and laying off 74 employees in the process.
New Ulm-based AMPI said it will close its plant at 700 1st Ave. SE by early February 2020, according to a filing with Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development. AMPI, which is a dairy farmer owned cooperative, will be laying off mainly manufacturing and warehouse workers.
“Company leaders said the decision stems from the continued decline in dairy farm numbers and milk production in the region,” the cooperative said on a release on its website. “Since 2008, Minnesota has lost 40 percent of its dairy farms.”
Another plant in northeast Iowa is also closing.
The cooperative has been hit hard by some tariffs. The cheese market has fallen by as much as 25 percent since U.S. trading partners imposed counter-tariffs on U.S.-made cheese in reaction to U.S. tariffs on their goods. AMPI is also paying more on shipping, because the U.S. has put a 25 percent tariff on Canadian-made cardboard.
Associated Milk Producers has roughly $1.6 billion in annual revenue, according to the Business Journal’s list of largest private companies.
Source: BIZ Journals
