8/2/2016
By Ivan Pereira
The city’s last milk plant will shut its doors this fall.
Elmhurst Dairy, which has been processing dairy products for more than 80 years, announced Tuesday that it will close its Jamaica plant on Oct. 30.
The closure, which will affect 273 employees, didn’t come easy, according to its CEO Henry Schwartz, because of the high costs of running the 15-acre facility.
“My family was dedicated to trying to keep the plant open long past the years that it was economically viable because it was the wishes of its founder, Max Schwartz, that future generations of the family continue the business,” he said in a statement.
The plant produced more than 5.6 million quarts of milk a week and distributed to a market of 11 million people at its peak, according to the company. It supplied 8,300 independent grocers and 1,400 public schools.
Employees will be laid off in phases over the next few months but the company said it “is committed to a re-use of the site that will be beneficial to the Jamaica community.”
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, said she would work with the mayor’s office to make sure any “void in jobs is restored either at the site or in the community.”
“Elmhurst Dairy has been a household name and a Queens institution, and the borough is sad to see them go,” she said in a statement.
