Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company has announced it will open a new creamery in Petaluma, Calif., approximately 22 miles east from its Point Reyes headquarters.

It’s the first expansion for the cheesemakers in nearly 60 years. The company’s pasteurized cheeses, including its Fresh Mozzarella, Toma, Bay Blue, and Gouda, will be produced and aged at this new facility. Its popular raw-milk Original Blue will continue to be produced in Point Reyes. Packaging and distribution of all of Point Reyes’ cheeses will also take place in Petaluma. 

“We are quickly reaching production capacity on the farm and want the ability to respond to increasing demand for our products in the marketplace,” says co-owner and COO Lynn Giacomini Stray in a press release. “My sisters and I thought long and hard about if and how we would grow the company.”

Co-owner and Chief Marketing Officer Jill Giacomini Basch tells culture that the hope is to double the company’s total production within the next five years. Some employees currently based in Point Reyes will work out of Petaluma, and new jobs are also expected to be created. 

The expansion has special meaning for the Giacomini family. Tobias Giacomini, grandfather of Point Reyes owner Bob Giacomini, moved to the US from Italy more than 100 years ago and raised his family on a chicken farm near the new creamery location. “Expanding our company to Petaluma brings our family story full circle, back to where it all started,” says Bob Giacomini in a press release.

Construction of the creamery has already started and is expected to take six months. The plan is to start making and distributing cheese from Petaluma by the end of 2017. 

Feature Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger

Alyssa Kim

Alyssa is culture's former Web Editor. Raised in Mass., she's excited to be back in her home state after six years of working in journalism and TV production in NYC.