Leprino Foods is an American company with headquarters in Denver, Colorado that produces cheese, lactose, whey protein and sweet whey.[ Official website, About Us][ BusinessWeek profile] It is the world's largest maker of mozzarella cheese.[Cathy Proctor, Patrick Sweeney, 'Denver's big cheese: Leprino cuts a huge slice of the mozzarella market', in Denver Business Journal, December 29, 2002]
Overview
Leprino Foods was founded by
James Leprino's father Mike Leprino in 1950 as a family-owned market selling grocery items and handmade cheese in Denver.
It was first sold under the
Gina Marie brand.
Leprino Foods has facilities in Waverly, New York; Remus, Michigan; Allendale, Michigan;Lubbock, Texas; Greeley, Colorado; Fort Morgan, Colorado; Roswell, New Mexico;
Singapore; Tracy, California; and Lemoore, California.
It operates plants in Brazil (PicNic brand),
Northern Ireland and
Wales.
The company's cheeses include mozzarella, reduced-fat
Monterey jack,
provolone, reduced-fat
Cheddar cheese and various cheese blends, mainly for
pizzeria and foodservice operators, frozen food manufacturers and private label cheese packagers. Leprino supplies cheese to 85% of the pizza market, including
Pizza Hut, Domino's,
Little Caesars, Papa John's, Godfather's Pizza, Hungry Howie's, Tombstone, Tony's, Jack's, and Digiorno. Their cheese and products are also used by
Hot Pockets, Stouffer's,
Smart Ones, and other products used in
Yoplait yogurt, Pillsbury Toaster Strudel, and baby formula. Leprino is the US's largest exporter of
lactose. They sell one billion pounds of cheese per year for $3 billion.
In 2009, it was ranked by Forbes as the 165th largest private company in the United States.[ Forbes company profile]
