Star of the West Milling Company Announces Flour Mill Project in Willard, Ohio

The Board of Directors’ of Star of the West Milling Company has announced the approval of a “greenfield” flour mill project in Willard, Ohio.  Construction should begin late this fall with completion targeted for fall of 2016.  The facility is slated to produce 10,000 hundredweights (1,000,000 lbs.) of flour per day.  All of the milling capacity will be dedicated to milling soft red winter wheat. 

The mill will have direct access to the CSX railroad to allow inbound wheat shipments and outbound shipments of flour.

The site location was chosen to optimize availability of Ohio grown soft red wheat and also to position the facility strategically with our existing customer base.

Star of the West is also expecting to evaluate all of its existing production capacity and rebalance production with customer demand.  The company expects to realize a net increase of over 6000 hundredweights per day system-wide.

The Company has chosen to not disclose the estimated cost of the project. 

Buhler AG, Uzwil, Switzerland has provided engineering and product flow design and is expected to provide equipment, electrical, and installation.  Todd & Sargent; Ames, Iowa has been chosen as the building contractor and Janotta & Herner, Inc.; Monroeville, Ohio will provide site engineering and preparation as well as a variety of on-site contractor services. The wheat storage contractor has yet to be finalized.

Star of the West Milling Company is headquartered in Frankenmuth, Michigan with flour mills located in Frankenmuth; Quincy, Michigan; Ligonier, Indiana; Kent, Ohio; and Churchville, New York.  Daily milling capacity is currently 25,500 hundredweights per day.  Star of the West also owns and operates 12 grain elevators primarily in Michigan with a grain storage capacity of over 21,000,000 bushels.  The company also owns four dry edible bean processing facilities, and three retail agricultural inputs operations that include fertilizer, crop protection, custom application, and agronomy services.

For additional information, please contact Arthur Loeffler, president or Michael Fassezke, vice president, flour milling division at 989 652-9971.