IDFA Senior Group Vice President Clay Hough last week joined several government and corporate dignitaries, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi and Theo Müller Group CEO Heiner Kamps, to celebrate the construction of a new yogurt manufacturing facility by Muller Quaker Dairy in upstate New York.

Muller Quaker Dairy LLC, a joint venture between PepsiCo, Inc. and the Theo Müller Group, is building the facility on 82 acres of land in Batavia, N.Y. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed in 2013.

Headquartered in Luxembourg, the Theo Müller Group is a holding company whose subsidiaries include a multinational dairy business. Muller Quaker Dairy's yogurt products entered the U.S. dairy market last month through supermarkets and retailers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

"IDFA is excited to see these global partners recognize the potential for dairy product innovation and to use their considerable marketing and production capacity to build consumer demand," said Hough. "This investment in Batavia is a great example of the contribution that dairy companies and dairy farmers make to their local communities and to consumers across the country."

During the ceremony, Gov. Cuomo called on dairy farmers and manufacturers to attend a New York summit to find ways to help increase the state's share of yogurt production and sales. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Cuomo wants the state to review regulations and laws that "could get in the way of farmers providing more milk and manufacturers making yogurt." The summit will be held August 15 in Albany.

For more information, contact Hough at chough@idfa.org.

Clay Hough (right) congratulates
Sam Lteif, CEO of Muller Quaker
Dairy, during the ceremony.