Sheboygan Dean Foods plant to close

After 104 years of operation, the Dean Foods dairy plant in Sheboygan is closing.

The Verifine Dairy Fluid Milk plant at 1606 Erie Ave. will be shuttered "on or before April 30," according to Dean Foods spokesman Dustin Cox. The move is the result of a consolidation of operations by the company, which will continue operating its plant in De Pere.

Verifine was founded in 1911 as the Sheboygan Dairy Products Co. and was originally located along Water Street until it moved to the current Erie Avenue location.

It will also result in the elimination of about 70 positions, though Cox said the company will advertise other open positions at Dean and encourage Sheboygan employees to apply.

"We regret the impact that this result will have on our employees and our community," Cox said in a statement. "The decision to eliminate jobs in any part of our business is never an easy one. This move does not reflect the quality of work performed by our employees, but rather reflects the need to remove redundancy in our operations."

Dean, an $11 billion company and one of the largest milk producers in the country, has posted four quarterly losses, closed 12 production plants from 2012 to November 2014 and has seen a decline in its fluid milk volume.

The struggles have been due to the higher cost of raw milk and other expenses caused by the plant closures, such as higher transportation costs, company officials say.

CEO Gregg Tanner said in the last earnings call in November that it has been the "most difficult operating environment we've ever experienced as a company." However, he also said the "transitory costs" of those closures should decrease over time.