Woman-owned Organic Dairy Approved for MISI Funding to Upgrade Equipment
$858K Modernization Grant Will Help Newark Business Compete in Its Industry
- Wilmington-Newark, DE-MD (1888PressRelease) September 05, 2024 - A 30-year-old organic dairy company in Newark, Delaware, has received a grant from a pilot program aimed at helping Delaware businesses evolve and remain competitive within their industries.
Natural Dairy Products Corporation has been approved for up to $858,400 in Modernization Investment Support Initiative (MISI) funding toward equipment upgrades totaling nearly $4.3 million. MISI monies will support the company’s Shelf-Life Extension Project, which includes replacing aging, inefficient filling machines – some dating from as far back as the 1960s – that cannot provide the longer shelf life the industry now requires.
“Agriculture is Delaware’s number one industry. Natural Dairy will use this grant to upgrade their equipment and stay competitive,” said Governor John Carney. “This is what the Modernization Investment Support Initiative is designed to do – help companies like Natural Dairy stay and grow in the First State.”
The MISI pilot program was created in 2023 following a proposal by Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) and the state Division of Small Business. Up to $5 million from the Delaware Strategic Fund has been approved for distribution through the MISI pilot to help existing Delaware companies preemptively avert or reduce future potential risks to jobs and operations.
Natural Dairy was begun by the MacArthur family in 1994 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and is now located on Markus Court in Newark, Delaware. The company produces milk and dairy products, serves as a contract manufacturer and also has expanded into plant-based products and juices. Natural Dairy supports 22 organic dairy farms in the tri-state region and employs Delawareans of various skill levels in good-paying manufacturing jobs.
In recent years, limitations posed by aging equipment have led Natural Dairy to lose contracts and be unable to bid for new ones. As a result, the company had to reduce its production schedule from seven days per week to four and cut its full-time employee positions from 24 to 21. Replacing its quart and half-gallon filling machines over the next two years will allow Natural Dairy to better serve current customers, bid on new contracts and restore its staff totals and production schedule.
Current owner Stephanie McVaugh, a Goldey Beacom College graduate, had begun working at Natural Dairy in 1999. The company moved from Pennsylvania to Delaware due to the utilities available and Newark’s strategic location along Interstate 95.
“In the past few years,” McVaugh said, “our team became very aware that adding shelf life to our fluid products through modernizing our equipment would be the key to our future growth and success.”
DPP connected with Natural Dairy as part of the statewide economic development organization’s Business Retention Engagement program and supported the company’s MISI funding request to the state Council on Development Finance. Last year, DPP supported a successful MISI application from Wilmington’s High-Tech Machine Co.
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