Darigold to build new ingredients plant
In 2018, Darigold finalized a 10-year transformation and growth strategy, which included a series of capital investments, including the construction of a new large-scale global ingredients plant.
New roles
Grant Kadavy will transition from his current role as COO to become Darigold’s chief growth and risk officer. Kadavy will spend the vast majority of his time spearheading a business-wide effort to launch the new plant and seamlessly integrate new products, services and processes into the rest of the company’s network and functions.
Effective November 1, Joe Coote will join Darigold in a new position, as president of global Ingredients. Coote will assume all operating responsibilities of the Global Ingredients business as well as oversee the corporate-wide global supply chain functions which both formerly fell under Kadavy as COO.
Duane Naluai has been promoted to president of consumer products. His formal responsibilities remain unchanged.
Matthew Sagendorf has joined Darigold to lead the construction and start-up of a new large-scale global ingredients plant. He will oversee and manage all onsite planning and construction at the new plant as well as start-up and commissioning.
The selection of a location for the plant is ongoing and will be announced in 2021 along with more specifics about the intended final products for commercialization.
Darigold said it continues to search for a new head of engineering to partner on designing the new plant and lead other enterprise-wide engineering projects. The company hopes to complete that search this fall and announce a hire by early 2021.
Darigold is also streamlining its international distribution capabilities to complement production investments. The company has signed a lease for just over 284,000 square-feet of warehouse space in the existing Prologis Emerald Gateway, south of Boeing Field and near the Port of Seattle.
“The primary goal of this operation is to streamline our logistics processes to better serve our expanding global customer base,” Chris Stockwell, leader of the global supply chain for Darigold, said.
“With increased warehouse capacity closer to Seattle and Tacoma ports, it will be easier to manage our global container business and it will enhance our partnerships with international shippers.”
The company said the new plant and warehouse will see substantial improvements to the environmental footprint of enterprise-wide operations – a major step toward achieving the company’s previously announced goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050 in keeping with US dairy’s nationwide net-zero initiative.
Darigold and the Northwest Dairy Association are founding members and signatories of the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment.
