1. Home
2. Posts tagged: new business

Horizon Organic Founder Launches New Organic Dairy Company

Organic dairy is one of the fastest growing segments of the organic industry, but it could be growing even faster if it was less expensive. The higher price of organic products is still the biggest barrier to the sector gaining market share. That may change now, since Mark Retzloff, who co-founded Horizon Organic, the largest organic dairy company in the U.S., has launched a new organic dairy company. Aurora Organic Dairy, based in Platteville, Colorado, will be the first in the U.S. to produce and sell private-label organic milk.Most milk sold today is private label. Retzloff is joined by Marc Peperzak, formerly chair of Horizon’s board and CEO of Aurora Dairy Corporation, one of the nations largest conventional dairy farms. Charlesbank Capital Partners of Boston is investing $18.5 million in the new company to expand the farm, convert the 5,000-cow herd to certified organic milk production and build a processing plant. Headwaters MB, a Denver banking firm, brokered the deal and also invested.The dairy farm received organic certification in December, and Retzloff expects the processing plant to be operational by mid-summer. The company is converting about 30,000 acres to organic pasture and cropland to produce feed for the cattle.Natural Foods […]

Read More

Sustainable Business Entrepreneurs Take Note: A Niche in Need

According to a survey published by Prepared Foods (January, 2002), sourcing organic food ingredients is the most time intensive part of the entire product development process. Is there an entrepreneur that would like to make the process easier?The survey looks at which ingredients will become more or less important to companies’ products in the next two years – natural and organic ingredients are at the top of the list, along with ethnic flavors, soy protein and antioxidants. “There is not an abundance of organic ingredient manufacturers in the field, which made it a challenge to search for them,” says Jerry Santo, director of corporate purchasing, Eatem Foods, a manufacturer of organic food bases. Santo adds that value-added or further processed organic ingredients are needed in the food industry. “Many of them are simply not available because this is such new territory. The ‘organic whole food’ segment is growing in volume and variety. But to develop organic products, we must complete the circle — starting with fresh organic food, adding basic organic flavor systems/processing aids and ending with organic convenience products. More organic value-added ingredients would make work a lot easier for developers of organic products and also speed up their […]

Read More