Remember when Galloway-West ranked 'among the giants' in the dairy industry? Its 2009 closure ended a 100-year era.
FOND DU LAC – "A Fond du Lac company that thrives in a seemingly non-descript building well off the beaten corporate path ranks among the giants in Wisconsin's diversified dairy industry," is how The Reporter described Galloway-West Co. in 1991.
The facility, "tucked away" on Tompkins Street, was most well-known for producing sweetened condensed milk, but started out mainly making butter to sell locally, according to archives.
Edwin A. Galloway — son of Edwin H. Galloway, whose Melrose Farm became the Galloway House & Village — founded Fond du Lac Cold Storage in the early 1900s, and in the years that followed, the Galloway family said that business was integral to starting Galloway-West Co. with Walter West in 1910, as the creamery needed the ice chopped from Lake Winnebago to ship products across the country.
Not long after Galloway-West's inception, Edwin P. Galloway left University of Wisconsin-Madison early to take care of the business when his father's health took a turn.
The company became a division of Borden in 1929, but the Galloway family still had stakes in the business and kept its original name. A few years later, Galloway bought interest in Neenah Milk Company, after which the two facilities operated separately in a friendly rivalry.
After Galloway retired, his family bought all the shares in Neenah Milk Co. in the 1950s and renamed it Galloway Company, which it still operates as today.
Galloway-West Co. continued to operate and expand under Borden, until it was purchased by Irish company Waterford Foods in 1989.
By 1991, it held a display case in the lobby featuring products the company had a hand in making, including Burger King hot chocolate, Swenson's hot fudge, Heath Bars, Tootsie Rolls, Butterfingers, Snickers, Girl Scout cookies and a variety of Brach's candies.
Waterford changed the name in 1994 to Waterford Foods, eliminating confusion with the Neenah company, but the name changed again in 1998 after Saputo Group purchased Waterford's Wisconsin businesses. Saputo had also purchased the former Tolibia Cheese on Scott Street the year before.
Saputo Cheese USA closed its doors on Tompkins Street in 2009 for "efficiency reasons," as it produced condensed milk, but Saputo's core business was cheese, according to archives. It sold its sweetened condensed milk recipes to Dairy Farmers of America.
Now, the facility is occupied by Milk Specialties Global.
Saputo also cited efficiency as its reason for closing its doors on Scott Street in 2018. The city purchased that property soon after and demolished the building in 2021.
More 'Remember When ...': Read more 'Remember when ...' columns about Fond du Lac County history
More history: It happened this week
June 16, 1966: Giddings & Lewis acquired Gisholt Corp. of Madison, combining two of the Midwest's oldest machine tool builders, after stockholders for both companies approved the merger.
June 18, 1970: Fond du Lac's first "meter maids" started duty, checking parking meters and issuing tickets for violations like parking over a crosswalk or obstructing a driveway. Their walking beats spanned Sixth Street to Johnson Street, including municipal parking lots.
June 17, 1981: The developer of a proposed Darling Place Mall downtown reported that about half of the retail and office space had been spoken for when he presented the plan to city council. Though the reception was mainly positive, plans stalled by the fall, and was dubbed an "impossible dream" by a few readers.
June 22, 1993: Vulcan Steel Fabricators on North Main Street announced plans to shut down production for a few weeks because of cash flow problems as it sought additional financing. The business didn't reopen, and held an auction for its equipment in September.
"Remember when ..." is a bi-weekly column from Streetwise Reporter Daphne Lemke that looks back at businesses of Fond du Lac's storied past. Tell her what you'd like to see next by emailing [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Galloway-West had a 100-year reign in Fond du Lac's dairy industry
