Emmi Roth opens new US headquarters

STOUGHTON, WIS. — Specialty cheese producer Emmi Roth has opened a new 158,000-square-foot headquarters. The facility in Stoughton also features a conversion facility for cupping, bagging, wedging, shredding and crumbling cheeses for numerous brands.

The company said the new space allows it to “control more of its supply chain,” as well as improve “the US cheese industry’s overall conversion landscape.”

Tim Omer, president of Emmi Roth, said the company’s leaders are happy to open the facility.

“Our team has worked tirelessly over the past two years to make this dream a reality, which will significantly impact our business and our ability to better serve our customers,” Mr. Omer said.

Emmi Roth in 2021 acquired leading feta brand Athenos, and the company said that addition led to the need for more conversion and distribution capabilities.

The company’s director of manufacturing, Jordan Ehlen, said having conversion within Emmi Roth’s supply chain will drive “growth opportunities to our great portfolio of cheeses, strengthen our value add to customers and increase our ability to service customers.”

What’s more, Emmi Roth called the new facility the “single biggest sustainability project” in its history, with the headquarters making it possible to reduce the amount of fuel and emissions spent transporting cheeses.

Per data shared by the company, the facility will allow Emmi Roth to reduce transportation lanes by 49%, trips per year by 26%, and fuel use and CO₂ emissions by 44%. Plus, the headquarters uses electricity exclusively, with no natural gas or propane service, which the company noted will help it meet its net zero by 2050 goals and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Strategically located between Emmi Roth’s cheese plants in Wisconsin, the new headquarters also makes it easier for the company’s various teams to collaborate in person. Emmi Roth said its conversion team members will benefit from a design that involved minimizing the physical stresses of lifting and bending, with efficient workflows.

The company said it has hired 85 new employees so far, and it plans to hire 40 more. Emmi Roth anticipates as many as 175 people working at the facility by February and said some employees already have started working at the headquarters.

“The startup of the new facility is in full swing,” Mr. Ehlen said. “Our team is really engaged and has taken on the challenges of the new facility with great pride and perseverance.”