Community members gathered Friday to help cut the ribbon on the new Reed’s Dairy facility nearly two years after a devastating fire destroyed the original production building.
In its place now stands a brand-new, 25,000-square-foot warehouse, office space and dairy production plant.
Well, almost brand new. All the equipment inside is second-hand, the result of a fortunate series of events following the fire. A group of dairymen who had attempted to start a dairy business in Hawaii were left with nearly unused, fully assembled equipment after their venture didn’t work out.
After the fire, Alan Reed, owner of Reed’s Dairy, reached out to the owners of the Hawaii dairy and made a deal, helping Reed's buy the equipment at a big discount.
Purchasing new equipment after the fire simply wasn’t an option.
“Sometimes when you have problems in your life, God kind of puts things together ahead of time and all that equipment was just sitting there waiting for us,” Reed said.
Following the fire, production was outsourced and sales were expected to drop. Instead, the opposite happened, sales grew. Reed credited the community for sustaining the business through its most challenging period.
“We live in Idaho Falls,” Reed said. “That’s all I can tell you.”
The new facility now has the capacity to produce double what the previous facility could. With increased production, Reed’s Dairy is also reviving its tradition of bottling milk in glass, which began again last Wednesday in the new plant.
Idaho Falls City Council member Lisa Burtenshaw also spoke at the ribbon cutting, saying, “Reed’s Dairy is a gathering place.”
The new plant begins full production on Monday and has the ability to produce 1,800 gallons of milk, cheese and ice cream per hour.