TILLAMOOK, ORE. — Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), a dairy cooperative, will open an ice cream manufacturing plant in Decatur, Ill., in late 2024. The facility will be TCCA’s first owned and operated manufacturing plant outside of Oregon and will be the cooperative’s only facility dedicated solely to ice cream production.

The Decatur plant previously was owned by Prairie Farms until closing in early 2022. Prairie Farms also used the facility to make ice cream, but TCCA said it will spend the next 18 to 24 months updating the plant. Under TCCA’s ownership, the plant is expected to manufacture Tillamook family-size (48-oz) ice cream and Tillamook foodservice ice cream (3 gallon).

“Consumer demand for Tillamook Ice Cream has grown exponentially over the past several years,” said Mike Bever, executive vice president of operations for TCCA. “This new facility is an investment in our continued national expansion plans. We are proud to be able to expand our manufacturing footprint even further as another step toward bringing Tillamook to more fans around the country.”

Founded in 1909, TCCA also owns and operates two manufacturing facilities in Tillamook and Boardman, Ore., that primarily manufacture cheese.

“Opening this Illinois manufacturing location will enable us to make more of our ice cream closer to the eastern US, where demand for our ice cream is growing fast,” Mr. Bever said. “In the last year, we’ve added 1.6 million households and grown ice cream sales nearly 60% in the eastern US.”