Friends and family: Cache Valley food producers thrive together.

• Author: Ritter, Patrick
• Position: Company Profile

Gossner Foods and Lower Foods are two Cache Valley companies with a secret. They are successful, third- and fourth-generation manufacturers of dairy products and specialized meats, respectively--but that's not the secret. Gossner Foods has been making quality Swiss, Cheddar, Monterey Jack and two dozen other cheeses since 1966. But the real beginning started in 1941 when Edwin Gossner moved to Cache Valley to make Swiss cheese the old-fashioned way with new-fangled ideas. Those newfangled ideas created not only the variety of cheeses and dairy products Gossner Foods offers, but also established the UHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk market, providing Grade "A" milk that doesn't require refrigeration to remain fresh.

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This innovation delivers tasty, high-quality milk to people traditionally unable to store milk. Children and adults all over the world drink nutritious milk in a dozen flavors anytime, anywhere. UHT milk also helps natural disaster victims and gives U.S. military personnel a taste of home in faraway places.

Lower Foods started in the 1920s as a family-owned custom meat cutting and sausage manufacturing enterprise. Four generations later, the Lower family operates the finest custom meat processing plant in the western United States. Sumptuous goodies like corned beef, pastrami, spicy shredded chicken and a host of others issue forth from Lowers state-of-the-art facility in Richmond, Utah.

To locals, neither company is much of a secret. Gossner Foods works with dairy farmers all over Utah to fill their requirements for high-quality milk. Lower Foods buys from local meat providers, obtaining the highest-quality cuts of beef, pork and poultry for its array of products. Despite the tough economy, Lower Foods is adding to its plant, increasing capacity and expanding product lines further.

Each company has received numerous awards and accolades for products, methods and new innovations. So what's the secret?

"I drive by eight of our dairy farmers every evening when I go home," says...