USA: Great Western Malting completes expansion of Idaho malthouse

Great Western Malting in Pocatello, Idaho has been around for more than 30 years. Now it has grown in size. An expansion project for the plant started in the fall of 2015 and on July 5, there was a ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of the expansion, Local News 8 reported on the same day.

The project is roughly $100 million. It expands the existing capacity of the plant by 120 percent. It will add 120,000 tons of barley per year that can be processed.

"It's a $300 million impact to our community," said Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad. "Unbelievable. Very few companies will be able to make that kind of an impact and Great Western Malting has been able to do that with this one expansion."

The expansion will also add ten to 12 new jobs on site. Great Western Malting President, Mike O'Toole, said it will also add other jobs to the wider industry, such as more truck drivers or producers.

O'Toole said there are several reasons why an expansion was the perfect fit for the community.

"The barley is grown locally," O'Toole said. "It's high quality from year to year. So we've had long-term relationships with our growers and producers. We have a supportive community."

He said other reasons are the customers are very satisfied with the plant's quality and production. The employees also enjoy it and are high energy so an expansion made sense.

GWM does business with several national corporations from countries such as Australia or Switzerland. O'Toole said this expansion is key not only to the plant but to its customers as well.

O'Toole said it's been a long process and a lot of work but he's excited to see it happen.

"It's a relief," O'Toole said. "It's very exciting. A lot of hard work has gone into it. It's just a pleasure to continually do business here. We've had a blast for 36 years and we're looking forward to another 36 and that's what this is about is keeping us here in the long term."

Blad said this expansion will be great for all of Idaho as well as the local community and he's happy Pocatello gets to be a part of it.

"It's a great company in our community," Blad said. "They're going to be here 100 years, which is well worth any investment we were able to put into it."

O'Toole said most of the funding for the project came from its parent company, Grain Corp, out of Australia.

O'Toole said over the next month or so, the plant will start qualifying barley to test if it's good to malt. He said you should start seeing it in beer by this fall.

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