State Mill and Elevator plans expansion project

By DALE WETZEL Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press - Tuesday, December 21, 2004

BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota's Mill and Elevator is spending $5.7 million to remodel and install new equipment in one of its mills, which will boost its flour-making ability by about 15 percent, its manager says.

The project includes changing the interior layout of the "K mill," one of the flour mills in the Grand Forks complex, and installing a new, separate mill capable of producing 3,000 hundredweight of flour each day.

Improvements to the existing "K mill" will allow it to make another 1,000 cwt of flour daily, mill manager Vance Taylor said. At present, the mill can produce about 27,000 cwt of flour daily.

"We're looking for the most efficient way to expand, try to get the most bang for our buck, and do an expansion without adding new buildings," he said. Taylor believes the project will recoup its cost in no more than 4 1/2 years.

North Dakota's Industrial Commission approved the project on Monday. The commission is the mill's board of directors. Its members are Gov. John Hoeven, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson.

Johnson said the project may not be ambitious enough. "I think we ought to expand it more than this. I think we're being too wimpy," he said. Replied

Taylor: "We'll fill this up, and then we'll look at another one."

In recent months, Taylor has been worried about the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets and their effect on flour demand. The mill's main product is bakery flour, made from hard red spring wheat and high in carbohydrates.

Taylor said Monday he is less worried now. Demand for the mill's flour is growing both from its bulk customers, and from stores that sell 5- and 10-pound bags to use for home baking.

"Low-carb diets aren't dead, but I think they're on their way out," Taylor said.

Last summer, the Industrial Commission approved a separate, $1.7 million project to upgrade the mill's whole wheat mill by installing newer equipment taken from a spring wheat mill.

Taylor said work on the new improvements should begin soon and should be completed by July. The modifications should also provide for faster and more efficient production of organic flour, and "identity-preserved" flour that is made from specific batches of wheat, he said.

"Every time you manufacture organic, you have to shut down and clean out" the milling equipment, Taylor said. "This will be a smaller mill to clean out ... and it will also make it possible for our other mills to continue to run, while we do our shutdowns to make the organic."

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