WILLARD, Ohio — The Star of the West Milling Co., headquartered in Frankenmuth, Mich., announced last month it will begin construction on a second Ohio mill, in Willard, this fall. The mill, which is targeted for completion by fall of 2016, will be able to produce 10,000 cwt. of flour per day, all of which will be dedicated to milling soft red winter wheat.
"Wheat is third among Ohio field crops with 665,000 acres planted in 2013," said John Hoffman, Ohio Small Grains Marketing Program (OSGMP) chair and a farmer from Circleville. "Ohio wheat farmers produce some of the highest quality soft red winter wheat in the world. We’re pleased that Star of the West Milling Co. is supporting the industry with an additional mill in Ohio."
Star of the West Milling Co. has flour mills in Frankenmuth; Quincy, Mich.; Ligonier, Ind.; Kent, Ohio; and Churchville, N.Y. Construction of the mill in Willard is just a few weeks away.
"We’re just waiting for our last permits," said Michael Fassezke, vice president of the flour milling division. "Once those permits are issued, we will start construction immediately."
All of the facility’s milling capacity is to be dedicated to milling soft red winter wheat.
"The location is optimal for a number of reasons," Fassezke said. "It’s a very, very good wheat growing area. We also have a couple of very large customers that are in that vicinity, as well. Transportation costs were also a consideration. Most of the freight cost advantages we’re going to realize are from in-bound truck wheat and out-bound truck flour. This is a decision that our company officials were mulling for several years."
In addition, the mill will have direct access to the CSX Railroad to allow inbound wheat shipments and outbound shipments of flour. The site location was chosen to optimize availability of Ohio-grown soft red wheat, which is used in pastries, cakes, cookies, crackers, pretzels and flat breads.
The mill in Kent, Ohio, was in need of upgrades, but company officials decided it made more sense to use that money toward a new facility in Willard. The initial fate of the mill in Kent was undetermined, but the goal might be to use it for a specialty product such as organic flour.
Star of the West was founded in 1870. The corporation owns and operates five flour mills, 12 grain elevators (primarily in Michigan) and two fertilizer plants. Daily milling capacity currently is 2.55 million pounds per day. The company also owns four dry edible bean processing facilities and three retail agricultural operations that include fertilizer, crop protection and agronomy services.
The original 15 settlers of Frankenmuth welcomed the arrival of an additional 100 people to Frankenmuth in 1846. At that time, they did not realize that two of them, brothers in their early twenties, would change Frankenmuth’s physical and business life for many decades.
The two brothers were Johann Mathias (1820-1903) and Johann Georg (1823-1909) Hubinger. They would begin family enterprises that would overshadow all other business activities in the small village during the 1800s. They came from a family in Germany that had been in the milling business for 200 years.
