Land O'Lakes Buys Madison Dairy

Land O'Lakes (St. Paul, MN) has announced it will purchase the assets of Madison Dairy Produce Co. (Madison, WI) and soon will begin operating the Midwest's largest butter production facility. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Land O'Lakes is the nation's leading butter marketer and Madison Dairy manufactures butter for a variety of customers including Land O'Lakes.

"Land O'Lakes has enjoyed a long, successful working relationship with Madison Dairy and its owners, the Steinhauer family. In this new relationship, Land O'Lakes has a guaranteed long-term source of butter supply. We are not planning to make any significant change to the current operations and will continue to provide services to a broad range of customers," said Chris Policinski, executive VP and COO for Land O'Lakes, Dairy Foods value-added business. "The purchase of Madison Dairy will allow us to continue to build our flagship butter business and serve our consumers' and customers' changing needs."

Gary Steinhauer, VP, Madison Dairy, said the decision to sell the company to Land O'Lakes is based on an effort to realize greater cost efficiencies as well as to continue to produce the highest quality products possible, both of which are high priorities for the two companies. "Bringing our expertise together will help both businesses be even more successful," Steinhauer said.

Edited by Scott Hegenbart