Fage Yogurt Creates Jobs in Fulton County
business, workforce development, yogurt,
The word “free” is commonly used at Fage Total yogurt...as in free of additives, free of preservatives and free of sweeteners.
Fage (pronounced fa-yeh) is the leading dairy company in Greece, having been founded in 1926. But 82 years later in 2008, the successful company established its first-ever production facility in the United States, headquartering it in the Johnstown Industrial Park.
“Fage looked diligently at 17 U.S. sites throughout the entire Northeast before finally deciding on us,” says Jeff Bray, executive vice president of the Fulton County Economic Development Corp. “They researched for about three years before making their choice. Our strong dairy industry, easy transportation access and abundance of water are key reasons why the company picked us.”
Bray adds that another lure for Fage was the Gloversville-Johnstown Joint Wastewater Treatment Facilities.
“In the 1970s, local government officials were wise enough to construct a state-of-the-art, $70 million treatment facility to support the leather industry, with that plant being environmentally advanced to deal with the byproduct waste,” he says. “Ironically, the byproduct waste that Fage produces in its whey has similar chemicals that require the same level of treatment processing. Having such a high-tech wastewater facility already here gave us a major negotiating advantage when trying to ultimately land Fage.”
Fage Total bills itself as a unique yogurt company because it features only two ingredients—live cultures and milk. The live cultures increase absorption of calcium by the body, providing a greater source of calcium than the same volume of milk.
By the way, yogurt is one of the oldest foods known to man, dating back 4,000 years, and the Greeks are known for their advancements with the product.
“We would never make a product that we would not give to our children,” says Ioannis Papageorgiou, Fage president and CEO.
As for the Johnstown site, Fage constructed an $85 million, 110,000-square-foot facility and began its U.S. operations with 60 employees. It plans to increase the workforce to 100 whenever the need arises.
Fage yogurt is currently sold in 18 states that include New York, New Jersey, California, Florida and Texas as well as Washington, D.C. The company plans on increasing its presence in the United States in the near future with a national marketing campaign that it plans to launch in 2010 or 2011.
“Ten years ago, a feta cheese company from Turkey – Euphrates Inc. – began operations in Fulton County, and it was attracted to this area because of the water supply, wastewater system and close proximity to the raw material they were looking for – milk,” Bray says. “That’s exactly why Fage arrived here, and we hope that word now gets out even more so that additional dairy-related industries will choose Fulton County because of all the advantages we offer.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
