DECATUR, Ill. – On June 4, city officials in Decatur, Illinois joined with representatives of Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), a milk cooperative based in Tillamook, Oregon, to celebrate the grand opening of TCCA’s first owned-and- operated dairy manufacturing plant outside of its home state.

“We thank TCCA for taking this initiative to repurpose and revitalize the former Prairie Farms plant, a building that was over 100 years old,” Decatur, Illinois city officials stated in a press release.

According to a TCCA news release, this production facility “marks a key milestone in the 116-year-old farmer-owned co-op’s national expansion, laying the groundwork for future growth.”

The plant’s grand opening represents over $70 million in investment, creation of 50 new jobs, with plans to expand the workforce as production scales, according to city officials. In addition, this project is a key piece in neighborhood revitalization efforts – transforming a formerly vacant manufacturing facility into a vibrant economic driver, according to city officials.

TCCA announced that the plant began producing ice cream the first week of June, and once their production scales, the Illinois plant will deliver 15.5 million gallons of ice cream annually.

Citing Circana data for 2024, TCCA says Tillamook “is the fastest-growing ‘family-size’ ice cream brand in the U.S.”

“This is an exciting step forward for our co-op, and we are energized by the new opportunities that the Decatur manufacturing plant opens for TCCA,” said David Booth, president and CEO of TCCA. “Decatur offers strategic access to our growing customer and consumer base, and we hope this new production facility will help enable Tillamook to become the ice cream of choice for consumers in the eastern United States.”

Since 2021, 4.4 million new consumers have purchased Tillamook family-size ice cream, including more than one million new consumers in 2024 alone, according to TCCA. This has driven the brand’s dollar sales to increase by over 13% in just one year with more than half of the new consumers located in the eastern U.S., where Tillamook ice cream is already being sold in many grocery stores along the eastern seaboard.

In addition, TCCA and the general contractor for the project, JP Cullen, are providing $50,000 to support local initiatives that include youth recreation and community events that feature ice cream; food security efforts with non-profits, and funds for the local county fair near Decatur to support the livestock and open class shows.

The TCCA announcement also highlights Tillamook as “the fastest-growing cheese and cream cheese brand in the U.S.,” again citing Circana data for 2024, and again referring to ‘family-size’ categories, adding that in 2024, one in four American households purchased Tillamook products.