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The beloved local company is moving on up, with a new production facility nearly triple the size of its current space.
When two Franklin County dairy farmers decided to start a business to sell their cow milk and help the local economy, they never imagined that their enterprise would swell to the size that it is today.
Eighteen years after they opened Homestead Creamery in 2001, the business is nearly tripling the size of its production facility in Burnt Chimney, due to demand for milk, ice cream, eggnog, buttermilk, custard and many more products.
Courtesy of Homestead Creamery
The new facility, which is going up on top of the original building, measures about 22,000 square feet and has numerous upgrades, including a machine that washes 12 milk bottles at one time, compared to only four at a time with the former washer.
“We were to the point where we had to expand to keep up with what we were doing,” says Donnie Montgomery, co-founder of Homestead Creamery and owner of Stoney Brook Dairy, his family’s farm in Wirtz.
Homestead Creamery has grown into quite the dairy operation, producing up to 25,000 gallons of milk a week from four farms and 400 cows. Its products are sold in about 100 stores in Virginia and in other grocers on the East Coast.
Courtesy of Homestead Creamery
But selling milk wasn’t the only focus when Montgomery and David Bower, co-founder who owns Goldenview Dairy farm in Glade Hill, originally opened Homestead Creamery. They wanted to boost the local economy.
At the time, Franklin County had a concept plan for the Burnt Chimney area that included adding jobs, infrastructure, and more housing, Montgomery says.
“We felt like we could be a part of that,” he says.
At the business’s beginnings, the farmers sold their own milk through a cooperative. Their cows, combined, produced about 200 gallons of milk a week.
“We just produced what was needed for our orders,” Montgomery says. “We didn’t bottle it unless we had an order for it.”
But demand grew quickly. Eventually, Homestead picked up wholesale customers and began selling products in convenience stores.
Within Homestead’s first year in business, Kroger was selling its products.
The company’s milk, available in half gallon sizes, was a hit – likely because it was sold in glass bottles, Montgomery says.
“That was something that hadn’t been done since the ‘60s in this area,” he says. “That got some people excited.”
Homestead had a small retail store selling milk, ice cream and other products inside its plant, but in 2007, it moved the store and offices into a house located beside the facility. Previously, the creamery’s offices were housed in a trailer on the site.
Over time, employees have had to store some of Homestead’s frozen products in cooler trailers, due to lack of space in the production facility.
Homestead’s expansion began in 2017, and improving the efficiency of its production cycle was one of the main priorities, Montgomery says.
Courtesy of Homestead Creamery
Another was to keep the operation going. They could not afford to halt production for renovations, Montgomery says. That led to the decision to build the new building overtop of the older one.
Inside the facility, the renovations include a new conveyor belt system, a backup generator, and a relocated loading dock that helps with the flow of products.
There are plans to add a third floor mezzanine on which people who take tours can walk through the building and view the work.
Meanwhile, the list of retailers that sell Homestead products is growing longer. They include Wegmans stores in Virginia, five Publix stores in Richmond, and Kroger, Whole Foods Market, and other grocers along the East Coast, including in Florida and Maryland.
In October, Earth Fare stores began carrying Homestead’s new milk line, A2A2. Studies have shown that this kind of milk is easier to digest for people who are lactose intolerant or have gastrointestinal problems. It contains only one protein, A2 beta-casein, rather than two proteins, A1 and A2, found in other kinds of milk.
Homestead’s A2A2 milk comes from cows with two copies of the A2 gene, according to the company.
Right now, Homestead is gearing up for the holiday season, and believe it or not, milk is not its best-selling item during the season. It’s eggnog.
Courtesy of Homestead Creamery
Though the rich beverage is only offered a few months out of the year, it is one of Homestead’s top sellers, based on yearly numbers, says Rose Jeter, sales and marketing manager for the company.
It’s so popular that many stores have trouble keeping it on the shelves, she says.
That’s why Homestead launched a social media campaign this year, specific to its eggnog and custard, which rolled out in stores in September. If shoppers see these items on a store shelf, they can take a photo and post it to social media using the hashtag #OnTheShelf and tagging the store and Homestead. They are entered weekly to win a $10 gift card.
Homestead often fields phone calls from shoppers, inquiring about where they can find these popular holiday items, Jeter says.
The social media campaign “will be a fun interactive way for people to be able to share where they are seeing it,” she says.
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