B-roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul, the Coca-Cola Company and Fairlife Celebrate Ramp Up at $650 Million, State-of-the-art Dairy Production Facility in Monroe County

Governor Kathy Hochul, The Coca-Cola Company and fairlife today celebrated the initial ramp up of production at the new, $650 million, state of the art, fairlife facility in the Town of Webster, Monroe County. The 745,000 square-foot facility, one of the largest dairy processing plants in the Northeast, will serve as fairlife’s flagship regional facility. The company selected New York following a personal pitch from Governor Hochul and the state’s world-renowned reputation as a global leader in the dairy industry. The facility will take in five to six million pounds of milk per day from New York dairy farmers and has already created approximately 380 new full-time jobs in the Town of Webster.

B-ROLL of the Governor’s economic development announcement is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning, everyone. The day has arrived. I am so excited to be here, a long way from that April day in 2024 when we all gathered and looked at a big field. So, much better, much better, but extraordinary timeframe. I was taken when Becca talked about how the teams, the workforce went through the brutal winters here. That's quite an indoctrination.

And as I was sitting there, I was reflecting: It's been a heck of a year for building in Upstate New York. Just down the road, Micron is investing $100+ billion to create 50,000 jobs in the largest private sector investment in American history. We did beyond the groundbreaking — that is actually, the land is cleared, and we're building that just about an hour down the road. So let's give a round of applause to that investment in Upstate New York. They're working through the winter. The other end of the thruway where they're working through the winter was to build the Buffalo Bills Stadium — another major, major investment. So I just want to say when you put Fairlife right in the middle of this, one of the largest investments by Coca-Cola on the planet, this is a hell of a good year for Upstate New York. I just want to acknowledge that.

But it takes companies to believe in us. And what Fairlife did, my first conversations with Tim, but also working with Becca, we don't take for granted. The relationships we develop, the trust you develop, and then to have a company like Coca-Cola — I mean, this is one of the most globally recognized products. Everybody knows Coca-Cola. Everybody probably drinks Coca-Cola if you're not chugging a Fairlife dairy drink. The demand is soaring, right? Everybody is understanding the benefits of protein, how important it is for healthy lives, and this is — your timing is excellent to build this facility with the possibility of even more growth. So I just want to tell you, as the governor of a state that sees a lot of businesses come and go in places like Manhattan, I'm from down the road in Buffalo, when I see investment here, this is a very big deal, a very big deal. So thank you for believing in us.

And you did mention, Becca, you investing in the people. I said this on that day two years ago. When you build a business here in Upstate New York, the workforce you're getting is second to none, for this reason: There is a long, long, long legacy going back to the industrial era, of people up in the Buffalos and the Rochesters and Syracuse and the suburbs of staying with the companies that they work for. People are loyal. Company takes care of them — they'll stay. They'll give you their blood, sweat and tears as long as it takes because my grandpa and dad worked at a steel plant. It was hard work, but they were loyal. So people are used to hard work. There's a strong ethos of hard work, and it's a strong culture that the businesses who see that are the smart ones, because they are the beneficiaries of extraordinary people, well-educated, hardworking, and [it] doesn't get any better than this. So I also believe in, as you said, investing in the people.

I'm really celebrating this moment. You think about all the great things. You think about the beautiful sunsets we have up on Lake Ontario, and I see the lakes. The lake is an important part of our culture here, our lives. And sometimes, you feel like you're part of something great, and you have that sense of hope of a better day tomorrow. Or you go stop by the Bill's training camp like I did, and you see the players on the field, and you have that hope of possibly a championship season. One before I die is our slogan. One before I die.

But you're also a dairy farmer who gets up at the crack of dawn, works hard every day, and finally now knowing that this is a place that is going to take your product. You don't have to worry about the demand: Is there going to be a marketplace for what I'm doing every day and perhaps my family did, or my grandfather might have? You have that hope that things are getting better. A ribbon cutting is a manifestation of that hope. That hope has been realized. Now we have the results. And this is why today really, really, really matters.

And as I was mentioning to John, it turns out he's from the same county in Ireland that my family is, and my family happens to have a fairly good-sized dairy farm right outside of Dublin. And I went there as a college student to visit the family on weekends when I was in London. And I was trying to be helpful with the dairy farmers, with the cows, and I went out there and it was —

They said, "Kathy, on your way back in, would you just close the gate?"

"Sure, I'll close the gate."

Okay, I didn't know gates were so complicated. This was not an ordinary gate, I swear. I did not mean to leave it open, but the next thing I know, my family's out there chasing the cows, running down the street and [it] was pronounced at that moment that, "Kathy, you'll never make a good farmer's wife, and therefore you should do something else." So I may not be a good farmer's wife, but I've been dedicated and devoted to the farmers of this state. I'm your best ally.

I have an incredible team led by Commissioner Richard Ball, who's here today. I want to thank him for all he does to support our agriculture community, a farmer himself. But also it takes money to make these projects happen. I want to thank Hope Knight for understanding how important this is to the psyche of this region that we landed this, and you're an important part of it, you and your team at ESD. Let's give her another round of applause. Local partners like Matt Hurlbutt, the President and CEO of the Greater Rochester Enterprise. Help from the locality is always important. You want that teamwork between the state, local, and the town. Of course I spent 14 years in town government, so I always praise my local supervisors. I want to thank the Supervisor of the Town of Webster Alex Scialdone, and thank him for believing in this project and hopefully clearing the path for even more investment here.

That is important to me, to have the next expansion here. I'm sorry to talk about that now, but I'm going to anyway. I'm going to let you try it out, get it right, because this is the next place for your expansion, and we'll be ready for it with the town and the county and the state as your best friends. And so I want to just tease it out a bit. And all of our local officials who are here today.

I also want to say one more program that we announced in addition to the funding for the — New York's Dairy Modernization Grant Program provides capital grants to upgrade infrastructure for in-state dairy farms and cooperatives. We had 20 farms receive $4.3 million in round one, and I said, "I'm all about go big or go home." This week, we're announcing $8.5 million as part of round two to help sustain our dairy farmers who are going through a lot. They didn't anticipate the challenges with the tariffs when they did their planning. I've talked to many farmers who are just getting slammed with the cost of everything from the fertilizer for their farms if they also have crops, the cost of shavings for the stalls — it comes from Canada many times so I know the costs for our farmers have gone up — and I said, "I can't just see them suffer just because of the attacks coming out of Washington." I'm here to support them, and that's why we're continuing this as well.

But I believe that this project, this $650 million investment, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for this region to show off who we are. And the amount of people already hired, almost 400, that's amazing. Five to six million pounds of milk every day — that's hard to comprehend. Think about what it takes to get the milk out of a single cow. Five to six — I’ve just — Was that a typo? Five to six million pounds? It's real, and so we're excited about this. Empire State helped with $21 million in Excelsior Tax credits. Thank you. Another 40 million — 20 through the Environmental Facilities Corporation for the water infrastructure, 20 million through our for electrical upgrades.

But this only happens when we have also local leaders who believe. So I'm here to support you, John, Becca, the family at Fairlife. Congratulations if you work here, because it's an extraordinary experience, I know that. But I also want to thank our County Executive Adam Bello, and call him up right now to talk about how important it is for Monroe County to be able to host this amazing project. Thank you very much, everyone.

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