k e e p i n g
BUSINESS JOURNAL
b u s i n e s s e s
c o n n e c t e d ™
JUNE 2020
VOLUME 5 ■ ISSUE 6
IN PROFILE
The Corral Sandwich Shop, newly opened in Oakdale, challenges customers to try finishing the Clydesdale in one sitting. PAGE 2
NEWS
Mountain House is making a push to become San Joaquin County’s eighth incorporated city. PAGE 6
SABRA STAFFORD/209 BUSINESS JOURNAL
Blue Diamond Growers recently announced the expansion of its Turlock and Salida facilities.
Blue Diamond expands Central Valley facilities BY ANGELINA MARTIN
B
209 Business Journal
lue Diamond Growers marked its 110-year anniversary last month with announcements about the completion of two key infrastructure expansions in the 209. The almond processor completed the expansion of its Turlock facility less than 15 months after breaking ground on the project. The 52,000 square foot addition to the existing 200,000 square foot facility is one of two major expansions for Blue Diamond, a nonprofit grower-owned cooperative and the world’s leading processor and marketer of almonds. The other, in Salida, was completed in May. The new Turlock expansion increases Blue Diamond’s value-added almond processing capabilities with an automated factory that features state-ofthe-art handling, processing and packaging equipment and also provides space for a future manufacturing line to support both current business or new innovations. The completion of the expansion comes as Blue Diamond celebrates its 110th anniversary and just seven years after its Tur-
lock facility opened. Since 2013, Turlock’s Blue Diamond facility has received a number of accolades, including Food Engineering Magazine’s title of the 2014 Plant of the Year, as well as being named to Boston Consulting Group’s list of the fastest-growing midsize companies in the nation. The company is no stranger to building facilities quickly — Blue Diamond was able to move from groundbreaking to startup for the original plant in just 13 months. At the expansion’s groundbreaking ceremony in January 2019, Blue Diamond President and CEO Mark Jansen said they hoped to get the additional space built quickly due to the company’s rapid growth. Just over a year later, that goal was accomplished. The new facility will be used specifically to create an integrated almond beverage base line, where, for the first time, everything needed for the product will be manufactured in the same facility. The base for Blue Diamond’s beverage line, Almond Breeze, will be created at the Turlock expansion through a process of blanching, splitting, roasting and grinding the almonds into a buttery paste, which will then be shipped all over the world to
be mixed with water and sold as almond milk. Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze production has experienced double digit growth over the last 20 years. In 2018, the brand grew by 14 percent. The original Turlock Blue Diamond facility is already processing about 25 percent more almonds than the company originally thought possible for the plant’s capacity after the company recently added an almond flour line to the mix. The expansion comes as phase
two in a three-phase, 15-year project that began when Blue Diamond purchased 88 acres at the intersection of North Washington and Fulkerth roads in late 2011. Since then, companies like Hilmar Cheese and Valley Milk have made their way into the Turlock Regional Industrial Park, while already-established facilities like United States Cold Storage and Sunnyside Farms are also currently in expansion mode. SEE BLUE, PAGE 10
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
The Turlock Blue Diamond facility has been recognized in the past as the top Food Plant of the Year by Food Engineering Magazine.