Turner Dairy Farms receives $750,000 to expand distribution center and automation

From dairy products to iced tea, Turner Dairy Farms in Penn Hills has been a Pittsburgh staple since the 1930s.

The company and its reach has expanded. Today, it partners with 35 family-owned dairy farms within a 70-mile radius.

With that wide range, the company was in need of an upgrade.

On June 26, the Shapiro administration announced Turner’s will receive $750,000 through Pennsylvania’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program, a cooperative agreement with U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant is among $21 million pledged to 77 farms and food manufacturers across the state.

Turner’s will use the infusion to expand its Pittsburgh distribution center.

“Our industry overall has been down every year for the last 10 years. So we’re growing in a challenging industry, growing internally, and this project really gives us the opportunity to do more efficient trailer loadout and automate palletizing, which is a limiting factor for us right now,” said Tim Turner Jr., vice president of plant operations.

What the grants aim to do, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, is to grow the local food system to keep consumer dollars in the local economy.

Shannon Powers, press secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, recognizes Allegheny County’s contribution to the food production industry and acknowledged its three RSFI recipients — Turner Dairy Farms, Mini Piebox and FarmFan.

“A lot of people don’t think of agricultural production going on in an urban county like Allegheny just because agriculture is known as being the rural thing. But even a business like the Mini Piebox that’s a hub that serves small producers, sort of combines their power so that they can meet the demands of a specific market opportunity. They enable small farms to be big demand,” she said.

Using the grant money, Turner’s will construct a 5,000-square-foot cold storage space, two state-of-the-art loading docks, additional truck parking and automated palletizing for milk crates. The company also will fund an additional 30 full-time employees and strengthen its ability to grow into different markets.

“So what we’re doing is taking a physical process and automating it. We will be able to grow a different segment of our business and be able to add jobs because we are currently limited by our warehouse space,” Turner said.