Broadview Dairy Acquires Smaller Competitor

Broadview Dairy, a Spokane milk bottler that in January said it was losing so much money it needed concessions from employees, Friday announced it had purchased a second dairy.

Broadview officials said they had acquired the College Dairy at College Place, Wash., a small operation begun 68 years ago to provide jobs and milk for students of Walla Walla College.

College Dairy’s manufacturing line was immediately shut down, but Broadview said it will use the building as a distribution center.

The net change in jobs at College Dairy has not been determined. The deal, however, may increase hours for Broadview’s 86 Spokane workers.

Broadview said it will ship raw milk to Spokane from the College Dairy farm, which has a herd of 500 cows that the company did not buy. Broadview will process the milk and ship back finished dairy products to Walla Walla stores and schools.

“This means greater production here and more hours for our employees,” said Art Coffey, chief operating officer for Goodale & Barbieri Cos.

G&B, a Spokane-based hotel and real estate development company, owns Broadview. Broadview is the smaller of two milk bottlers in Spokane, behind Darigold Inc.

Coffey declined to disclose the sale price. He said Broadview bought College Dairy from a private investment group that had acquired it last year from the college.

The sale comes soon after Broadview broke the Teamster’s Union Local 582, which ended a 13-week strike against the dairy Jan. 26. During negotiations, Broadview said it was losing $100,000 a year and needed to restructure its wage and benefits package to return to profitability.

“If I had my wages reduced, and the company turned around and bought someone else, I would wonder if my wages went to buy that company,” said Richard Solberg, executive secretary of Teamsters Local 582.

But Coffey said the company is making good on its promise to become more competitive under the new employment package, which shares profits with workers.

“We have confidence now that the company is positioned to aggressively grow,” he said. “As profits grow, employees will receive more pay.”

, DataTimes