Greeley close to landing big cheese

GREELEY — The world’s largest producer of mozzarella cheese, Denver-based Leprino Foods Co., is closing in on a contract to buy the former Great Western Sugar site, where it plans a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing plant employing more than 400 people, several sources familiar with the deal said Tuesday.

The Leprino name has been circulating quietly in Greeley for months as the company narrowed its site search. People close to the negotiations said this week Leprino officials had privately announced their choice to locate in Greeley.

Sources said Leprino plans to raze the old sugar mill, clear the site and build a modern manufacturing center where it will bring milk from dairies throughout the region to be processed into cheese that tops most of the pizzas in America.

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The privately held company’s biggest customers are pizza giants Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s, contributing to about $1.7 billion in annual sales, according to research by Forbes magazine.

Leprino Foods president Larry Jensen said this afternoon his company’s site selection process was still under way, and that Greeley was under close consideration. The company also has looked at three other sites, including another in Northern Colorado that Jensen said he could not identify.

He said Colorado dairy producers were among the most progressive and productive in the nation, and that was one reason Leprino favored Colorado locations.

The listing brokers for the Great Western site, Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. of Greeley, would not comment, saying they could not discuss pending business.

Several sources said they had been told a purchase contract likely would be final by the end of this week.

Greeley’s city council will meet Dec. 18 to begin discussion of whether to implement a tax-increment finance agreement, through the creation of an urban redevelopment district that covers the Great Western site and the surrounding area just east of downtown Greeley. That process, including public comment, will continue at the Jan. 8 city council meeting where a final decision will emerge, Greeley Community Development Director Becky Safarik said.

The tax-increment finance proposal, a common tool used by municipalities to provide employer incentives, is not specific to a single user, Safarik said.

Upstate Colorado Economic Development president Larry Burkhardt, citing confidentiality agreements, would not name the prospective buyer of the Great Western site, but said the finance agreement would be a clear signal to a major employer that the location would be a good choice.

“The TIF district is a mechanism that should be able to attract a significant employer,” Burkhardt said. “We look forward to having the site redeveloped and having a productive employer in place.”

According to information on the company’s Web site, Leprino employs 3,000 people at 10 manufacturing plants in the United States and two in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Greeley would be the company’s third Colorado location, joining Denver and Fort Morgan.

Leprino was founded in 1950 by Mike Leprino, who had immigrated to the United States in 1914. The company’s mozzarella product line includes shredded, loaf, ribbon and string cheese, and the recently developed “Lite Mozzarella,” a low-fat product aimed at school-lunch menus.

In producing the cheese, the company processes up to 6 million pounds of milk daily, or about 5 percent of the U.S. milk supply, according to Forbes research.