In October 1932 Charles Catalana was a lamp worker at the Kimble Glass Works in Vineland, NJ. He began a part time job delivering 24 quarts of milk from the back seat of his 1926 Chrysler sedan.
In October 1932 Charles Catalana was a lamp worker at the Kimble Glass Works in Vineland, NJ. He began a part time job delivering 24 quarts of milk from the back seat of his 1926 Chrysler sedan.
Charles Catalana converts the garage at his South Avenue home into a small processing plant.
Carmine Charles Catalana III returns home from his tour of duty during the Korean War and starts a new partnership with his father and mother.
A new processing plant was constructed on the north side of Bridgeton, which opened in June 1956.
Cumberland Dairy was faced with its most serious setback to date with the passing of its founder Charles Catalana at the age of 62.
Cumberland Dairy began making milkshake mix for a new drive-in restaurant in the area called McDonald’s.
Cumberland Dairy had outgrown its processing plant by late 1977 and purchased a 36 acre tract of land in Rosenhayn where it built a 7,200 square foot refrigerated warehouse and a 2,000 square foot office. This new warehouse would accommodate all the refrigerated products for McDonald’s and converted the Bridgeton facility back to being a processing plant only.
In January 1985, Cumberland Dairy began operation of the first United States installation of the DASI Ultra High Temperature Pasteurization System.
Along with the increased business came a need for further expansions at both facilities. The Bridgeton processing plant was expanded in 1989 and the Rosenhayn distribution warehouse more than doubled in size with a 1991 expansion.
Began producing full line of ESL cream products
Cumberland Dairy moved into the plant-based milk alternatives as we started production of Silk brand Soymilk at the Edward Ave. processing plant. As volumes of this product began to grow, we converted a portion of our Rosenhayn Ave. dry warehouse to a soy extraction plant.
With the growth of both dairy and non-dairy business, the Bridgeton processing plant was expanded again in 2001.
As the Silk brand of Soymilk continued to explode, converted our Rosenhayn Ave. dry warehouse into a full production plant for soymilk only. The plant was almost at full capacity the day it opened.
As the need for extend-shelf life products continued to grow, customers were demanding these products in other packages. To meet our customer demands, we installed a new ESL bottle filler for production of white and flavored milks in 8 and 16 ounce HDPE bottles.
The single UHT system that had served us so well 20 years finally needed a partner and we installed a new JCS Ultra-Sys UHT processor. This system allowed us to more than double the UHT capacity of the Edward Ave. plant.
In December of 2011, the company lost the man who was the driving force behind the company’s tremendous growth. Carmine Catalana III passed away at the age of 81. It was under his leadership that Cumberland Dairy went from a small local dairy, to one of the nation’s premier manufacturers of specialty dairy products.
On November 1, 2017, Cumberland Dairy joined Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a leading global dairy cooperative of family dairy farmers across the United States caring for their cows, their land, and their communities. With a nationwide network of manufacturing facilities, DFA makes nearly every form, function, and flavor of high-quality dairy nutritional products and ingredients. As a farmer-owned cooperative, DFA helps our farmer families thrive and nourishes communities around the world.