Agricultural marketing cooperative | |
Industry | Food processing |
Founded | 1909 |
Headquarters | Tillamook, Oregon, United States |
Products | Dairy |
Website | www |
The Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) is a dairy cooperative headquartered in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. The association manufactures and sells dairy products under the "Tillamook" brand name. Its main facility is the Tillamook Cheese Factory located two miles north of the city of Tillamook on U.S. Route 101.
The 48th largest dairy processor in North America, Tillamook posted $654 million in sales in 2015, the trade magazine Dairy Foods reports. TCCA employs nearly 900 people in Oregon and is the largest employer in Tillamook County. The brand is strongest in the West but sells in all 50 states. It routinely wins awards from the American Cheese Society and other groups.
The co-operative includes nearly 100 dairy farms, mostly within Tillamook County. Products produced by the co-operative include cheese and ice cream; butter, sour cream, and yogurt is produced with co-manufacturing partners. Their most famous product is Tillamook cheese, including the famous Tillamook Cheddar. In March 2010, Tillamook's Medium Cheddar cheese won the gold medal in the 2010 World Cheese Championship Cheese Contest hosted by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association in Madison, Wisconsin. The cheese scored 99.6 out of 100 points possible, beating 59 other entries.
The Tillamook Valley was ideal for dairy cattle in the mid-19th century, but transporting the milk and butter over the mountains surrounding the valley was a problem. In 1854, several farmers from the county built a schooner named the Morning Star to transport butter to Portland, Oregon; the schooner is now featured as part of the co-op's logo, and a replica (constructed in 1992 by master shipwright Richard Miles of Aberdeen, WA) is on display at The Tillamook Cheese Factory. Peter McIntosh and T. S. Townsend established the county's first cheese factory in 1894. The association was founded by ten independent dairy farmers in 1909. TCCA hired an ad agency and began campaigning in 1917 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland.