The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center

In recent decades, New England value-added dairy products have earned a strong reputation for excellence. With consumption of cheese, yogurt, and other value-added dairy products serving as key drivers of national dairy consumption, the sector represents a critical growth opportunity for the region’s dairy industry. To strengthen the industry’s resiliency and cultivate the next generation of master producers, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets’ Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC) retained KK&P to conduct feasibility research and then design a concept for a center for value-added dairy education, product development, business services, and training. KK&P assembled and led a diverse team in an 18-month research, iterative design, and planning process. The team employed a mix of methods including mapping/ location analysis, real estate market research and analysis, interviews, a national producer survey, an environmental scan of relevant existing training assets, case study development, facilitated ideation roundtables, SWOT analysis of organizational and staffing structures, and financial modeling. That process resulted in a blueprint and set of tools that the client and partners are utilizing to bring The New England Center for Value-Added Dairy from paper to practice.

View NE-DBIC's webpage on the project here.
View and download the report here.