Kleinpeter to reverse employee wage decreases, lowers milk prices

The approximately 200 Kleinpeter Farms Dairy employees who were forced to take a 2.5% wage reduction in October can look forward to having it reversed in July, the company announced today. “We’ve pulled together and made it happen, and we have a bit more work to do before we can restore pay rates to our team, but we are really optimistic that this will happen within a few months,” says company president Jeff Kleinpeter. At the same time, Kleinpeter says, the dairy opened April with a nine-cent reduction on the price it charges stores for a gallon of milk. Kleinpeter says it’s the second price drop in three months, following a six-cent drop in February. The wage restoration and price declines are due to increased efficiencies at the company, he says, as well as some employee restructuring as a result of attrition, consolidation and regular turnover. “We’ve hired an extra truck mechanic, we’ve hired an extra loading dock supervisor, we’ve promoted some milk and ice cream managers, so we are adding people in the ways that benefit us the most and moving in a positive direction,” he says. When the price of raw milk drops, the federal government does not require milk processors like Kleinpeter to pass cost savings along to the stores, but Kleinpeter says he hopes stores will in turn pass along the savings to consumers.