After 60 years, Vitamilk is closing Green Lake plant
However, the company plans to continue production and distribution of its ice-cream products through its sister company at the same site, Vitarich Ice Cream Co., and eventually integrate with Arctic Ice Cream Novelties on Rainer Avenue South in Seattle.
Daryl Vander Pol, Vitamilk's chief financial officer, said the company decided to cease operations because its customer base is shrinking.
"It's come to a point where our efficiency was at a point where we could no longer continue," he said.
Residents offered mixed reactions.
Said Ref Lindmark, vice president of the Green Lake Community Council: "It's something they've been waiting for for years," he said of neighbors concerned about noise and traffic. However, he said he remembers the company being generous to Green Lake Elementary School.
"I really appreciated that."
Mark Holmes, 29, lives near the plant at 427 N.E. 72nd St. and says he's sad to see it go.
"It's terrible. The small businesses can't be successful and the big businesses take over," he said.
Another neighbor, Bill Leah, 31, said people who complain about the noise should think about what could replace the plant — like a residential property that would bring parking problems.
"They've been a member of the community longer than those who have been complaining," said Leah, who lives across the street from the plant.
Employees expressed sadness, Vander Pol said. But for the most part, they have been supportive.
"It's like going through the loss of a good friend," he said.
Vander Pol said the consolidation of grocers in the United States has shrunk the number of independent grocery stories, Vitamilk's primary market, making it near-impossible for smaller milk producers to remain open.
Two of Vitamilk's main clients were bought out by larger chains: Quality Food Centers (QFC) was purchased by Fred Meyer and eventually Kroger, while Alaska-based Carr's Quality Centers was acquired by Safeway.
The company produced 10 million gallons of milk in 2002, compared to 20 million in 1997, he said.
Vitamilk was founded by Edwin Teel, who began delivering milk in college. After he graduated from Seattle Pacific College, now Seattle Pacific University, he opened a small milk-processing plant on a Seattle farm and moved it to the Green Lake area at the beginning of World War II.
In the 1970s, the company was then passed on to Teel's son, Jerry Teel, company president, and son-in-law Vander Pol.
Edwin Teel died in 1997 at 85.
Ben Aguirre Jr.: 206-464-3299 or baguirre@seattletimes.com