01/24/06 Working out the kinks at new plant

When they started making Swiss cheese in Heyburn last November Gossner Foods President Delores Wheeler said it would be two months of curing before she knew now good of a product they had. Wheeler says the first couple of batches of cheese they made weren't up to their high quality standards. WHEELER "We can see that each day it gets better. We're really encouraged that we're going to have some good quality product. We've already cut some of it. We have the packaging room up and going now." Some of the cheese they're cutting was produced at Gossner's Utah plant, the rest came from the new Heyburn plant. That facility was built to handle one million pounds of milk daily just for Swiss cheese production. WHEELER "The agreements go through with customers that we're talking too now by the end of the year we should have it I would think 80 to 90 percent full." Wheeler says they have nearly 30 people working in the Heyburn plant now and that number will probably go higher in the future. WHEELER "Excellent people that we're hiring up there. We're very pleased with the workforce up there. We're not out there hiring people to take the key positions, we're hiring people to come to work and then the best ones are going to get the key positions." Next up for Gossner is the construction of a store next to the Heyburn plant. That work should get started in the spring with an opening later in the year. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott