Utah Flour Milling breaks ground on mill and custom mix factory in Richmond

Utah Flour Milling LLC has broken ground for its new flour mill and custom mix facility in Richmond, Cache County, with operations expected to begin before the end of the year.

Utah Flour Milling is a partnership of Denver-based PHM Brands’ Panhandle Milling and NIPPN Corp., one of Japan’s largest flour milling businesses. Construction of the facility will be led by Bratney Cos. of Des Moines, Iowa.

The $100 million mill and mix facility, announced in July, will be adjacent to a Campbell Snacks baking plant in Richmond and primarily responsible for production of Goldfish and Pepperidge Farm products. Campbell Snacks is a division of Camden, New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Co.

As the design-build general contractor, Bratney is leading the equipment supply, engineering and construction of the project. Bratney will be providing all the key processing and milling equipment, including Cimbria cleaning equipment and Omas Industries milling equipment. The operation is set to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024.

“This flour mill is a very exciting project for us at Bratney, as it allows us to bring equipment from our partners at Omas and Cimbria together with our in-house engineering and construction services and deliver a turnkey state-of-the-art milling facility to our long-term customers and friends at PHM,” said Peter Bratney, president and CEO of Bratney.

PHM Brands said the Richmond facility will contain more than 1 million bushels of grain storage at a site that provides convenient access to main-artery truck and railway routes. The plant’s daily flour production capacity will be between 7,500 hundredweight and 15,000 hundredweight. The mill will feature leading-edge technology, including patented pathogen-reduction biotechnology from Energis Solutions, a subsidiary of PHM Brands. The mill will process spring, hard and soft wheats and will be organic, non-GMO, kosher, halal and Global Food Safety Initiative certified.

The flour mill will be Italy-based Omas’ largest mill to date in North America. Omas will be contributing heavily to the milling system design and participating in the startup and calibration of the milling system, Bratney said.

“I am very proud to serve the PHM flour milling group, along with our American partner Bratney,” said Luigi Nalon, CEO of Omas. “I strongly believe the project — a result of significant technical and business commitment — will once again allow us to demonstrate the high technological value of our machinery. Our customers will benefit from this for the next 30 years.”

Based in Denmark and part of AGCO Corp., Cimbria will provide wheat cleaning equipment and color sorting technology for the mill. The mill facility will include high-capacity storage bins from GSI — another AGCO company. Through its exclusive distribution partnership with Bratney, Cimbria has been supplying essential cleaning and separation equipment to companies in the milling, seed, grain and food industries throughout the United States and Argentina for 30 years.

“With Bratney leading the equipment supply, engineering and construction of this strategic project, the facility will be the most modern, efficient and technologically advanced flour milling facility in the region,” said Peter Bisaccia, president of PHM Brands.