Minnesota-based farmers’ co-operative Land O’Lakes has announced that it is to sell the operations of its California subsidiary Cheese & Protein International (CPI) to Saputo Cheese USA for US$216m.

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The company said the sale includes all of CPI’s cheese manufacturing and cut-and-wrap operations. The deal, which remains subject to regulatory approval, also includes a long-term milk supply agreement, under which Land O’Lakes will be the full milk supplier to the CPI facility. The transaction is expected to close in April 2007.


“We are very pleased to have found a strategic buyer for these facilities, as well as to have secured a long-term milk supply agreement for our members’ milk production,” said Land O’Lakes president and CEO Chris Policinski. “This sale and milk supply agreement are consistent with that heritage and our business strategy.”


The manufacturing and cut-and-wrap facilities employ approximately 530 full-time and part-time workers.


Land O’Lakes said it would continue to operate cheese manufacturing facilities in Tulare and Orland, California, Melrose, Minnesota, and in Denmark and Kiel, Wisconsin, as well as a cheese processing facility in Spencer, Wisconsin.

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