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WEST VALLEY CITY -- One of Utah's oldest businesses celebrated its 130 year anniversary Monday -- a remarkable feat considering its humble beginnings.
Since the late 1800s, Winder Dairy -- now known as Winder Farms -- has served up ice cold milk to Utahns. Instead of turning sour with the times, the business is still growing, hiring and expanding outside of Utah.
- 94,288,291 deliveries made since 1880
- 1,092,000 deliveries made by horse-drawn wagons
- 175,000 products are delivered every week
The milk trucks used today to deliver Winder Farms products are quite a bit different than what was used in the good old days: horse-drawn carriages. Even so, Winder Farms' first test run with delivery trucks wasn't so successful.
"The tires would pop every time it would go around the trolley tracks, so they abandoned that and went back to horse-drawn wagons until 1925," explained Vice President of Marketing Mike Winder.
Winder Farms is all Mike Winder has known. He's worked for the farms ever since he was a child. Now the mayor of West Valley City, he's still employed at the family business.
"All through high school I worked on the milk plant on the weekend, and running the milk filler and bottle washer," he said.
This is a sixth-generation family-run business. That's practically unheard of nowadays.
"Only 30 percent survive through the second generation, only 14 percent survive the third generation," said Gov. Gary Herbert. "Now we have the sixth generation."
Along with the governor -- a milkman once himself -- family, friends and employees came to celebrate the anniversary.
Winder Farms is one of West Valley City's oldest business. Starting in 1880 on 65 acres, the Winder family began selling their extra milk. After that, the dairy grew and grew.
Winder Farms delivers to 30,000 homes, and though the business is run in West Valley City the cows are out in Payson, moved a while back when neighbors complained about the smell.
Even now, 130 years later, it's still growing. It continues to hire and add more positions and has expanded to Las Vegas, and it's the fastest-growing online dairy.
Though Winder Farms keep adding new customers, it says its most loyal customer has been with them since 1940.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
