Newark dairy processing company modernizing equipment with help from state grant

A Newark dairy processing company will receive more than $850,000 in state grant money to modernize its equipment.

The grant from the Delaware Strategic Fund is part of a pilot program aimed at helping Delaware businesses evolve and remain competitive within their industries.

Natural Dairy Products Corporation, located on Markus Court in the Sandy Brae Industrial Park, will use the funds as part of its $4.3 million shelf-life extension project. The company is replacing aging, inefficient filling machines — some dating from as far back as the 1960s — that cannot provide the longer shelf life the industry now requires.

“In the past few years, our team became very aware that adding shelf life to our fluid products through modernizing our equipment would be the key to our future growth and success,” owner Stephanie McVaugh said in a prepared statement.

In recent years, limitations posed by aging equipment have led Natural Dairy to lose contracts and be unable to bid for new ones. As a result, the company had to reduce its production schedule from seven days per week to four and cut its full-time employee positions from 24 to 21.

Replacing its quart and half-gallon filling machines over the next two years will allow Natural Dairy to better serve current customers, bid on new contracts and restore its staff totals and production schedule.

Natural Dairy was founded in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1994. It moved to Newark in 2013 due to the utilities available and the city’s strategic location along Interstate 95.

The facility produces milk and dairy products, serves as a contract manufacturer and also has expanded into plant-based products and juices.The company uses milk from 22 organic dairy farms in the tri-state region.

“Agriculture is Delaware’s number one industry. Natural Dairy will use this grant to upgrade their equipment and stay competitive,” Gov. John Carney said in a prepared statement. “This is what the Modernization Investment Support Initiative is designed to do — help companies like Natural Dairy stay and grow in the First State.”