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Smith Dairy Products Company, Orrville, OH, the leading regional maker of dairy products, beverages, and ice cream, has long been in the vanguard of the regional dairy business. In 2009, however, the forward-thinking company is also looking back during its yearlong 100th anniversary celebration that includes special events, exhibits, production of a retrospective video and book, and an ice cream social.
Smith Dairy will formally commemorate its centennial on June 19 by hosting a community open house and ice cream social with family-oriented entertainment for the general public and company associates. Earlier in the day, the company will welcome key customers, vendors, producers, Orrville officials, and industry leaders to a special luncheon.
In honor of its 100 years in business, Smith Dairy has produced “Our First Century: 1909 – 2009,” a heritage video and accompanying book, which will be distributed later this year to Ohio libraries and historical societies.
On January 1, 1909, using $500 they had saved and $300 they borrowed from a neighbor, brothers John J. and Peter Schmid bought two horses, two wagons, some milk bottles, cans, dippers, and a hand-cranked freezer to begin daily deliveries to Orrville homes. A hundred years, two major facilities expansions, and many technological innovations later, Smith Dairy is still family owned, with Steve and John Schmid, grandsons of founder John J., as the current president and vice president, respectively.
A CITY OF DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRY
For more than 100 years, Orrville has built a reputation as a flourishing community with a supportive business climate where major corporations, family businesses, and entrepreneurs can start and grow a business in the midst of strategic U.S. market areas. This long-standing focus on successful enterprises include several nationally prominent companies such as Schantz Organ Company (1873), The J. M. Smucker Company, Inc. (1897), Orrville Pet Products (1900), The Smith Dairy Company (1909), The Will-Burt Company (1918), and The Quality Castings Company, Inc. (1933).
In fact, approximately 20 industries have been operating in Orrville since 1970 or earlier, demonstrating a well-established foundation for successful businesses. Today, new industries continue to call Orrville home, and the City's companies currently employ more than 4,000 people, who live primarily in Orrville and the surrounding Wayne County area.
Indeed, Orrville offers companies a number of competitive advantages including a skilled workforce with a heritage of a substantial work ethic, perhaps passed down from the pioneering generations who started their farms and small businesses in the area more than 170 years ago and built the City into a prosperous center for commerce.
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