Meadow Gold
From staff and wire reports
buying Maui dairyHaleakala Dairy on Maui is being sold to Meadow Gold Dairies Inc. and will quit processing milk at its Kahului plant in January.
The agreement to sell to Meadow Gold makes the future employment of the 75 Haleakala Dairy workers uncertain, the historic Maui dairy company said.
The employees have been told of the pending sale but it is not known how many might be hired by Meadow Gold, the companies said. They said the dairy's 800 milking cows will be moved to Meadow Gold facilities on Oahu. The Haleakala brand will not disappear, however. Meadow Gold will produce it on Oahu for distribution on Maui and the Kahului plant will be used as a distribution center.
Peter Baldwin, principal owner of Haleakala Dairy, said the land eventually will be turned over to the landowner, his family's Haleakala Ranch. Baldwin said Haleakala Dairy, which turned 100 years old in 1996, recently has encountered increasing costs of feed for the cows as well as price competition from mainland milk. Meadow Gold is owned by Dallas-based Southern Foods Corp.
