JOHNSTOWN -Fulton County yogurt producer Fage was honored with the Fulton County Economic Development Corp. Outstanding Expanded Business award during Saturday nights annual dinner.
Fage Chief Executive Officer Athanassios Filippou was on hand to accept the award for his companies expansion within the county.
Fulton County EDC's Jeff Bray said he has wanted to award Fage for a few years, and he finally got his chance Saturday.
Bray told the audience about the journey it took to get a Greek company to set up shop in America.
"They said it's easy to do business in the United States," Bray said.
Bray joked that during a trip to Greece to talk with representatives in 2005, one of the officials said that "he heard Johnstown and Fagetown."
He laughed he spoke Greek and the town would not be changing it name
"My father's name is John, so Johnstown is good enough," Filippou joked.
The Greek-based company packages all of its American products at the Johnstown facility, and is expanding to keep up with the ever growing demand. Their yogurts are shipped across the nation and are printed with "packaged in Johnstown" on the label.
Fage started in 1926 as a small dairy in Patissia, Greece, and began exporting to the United States in 1998. The success of their products led to the decision in September 2006 to start construction of a U.S. processing facility, which became fully operational in April 2008. The 120,000 square foot plant currently employs 110 employees in the Johnstown Industrial Park.
Bray said the company has put $100 million of its own money into the Fulton County Facility and employs 110 people.
"This is real money. They didn't come with their hands out looking for money," Bray said.
Since establishing the New York plant, Fage no longer has to ship product from Greece to the United States. Their products are available in 28 counties worldwide.
The Johnstown plant fills the demand for the 2 percent market share that Fage has captured from the estimated $3.9 billion U.S. yogurt market.
Officials have no plans of stopping their expansion plans and hope to fill every last bit of empty space on the plant floor with new equipment.
Everyone at the EDC got a chance to try the company's line of flavored products during a sneak preview of a "coming attractions" DVD about business opportunities in Fulton County.
The DVD features Fulton-Montgomery Community College President Dustin Swanger, Johnstown Mayor Sarah Slingerland and the Fage plant among other people and places.
"I have not felt as embarrassed as I do now," Filippou joked after receiving a standing ovation and several mentions throughout the night.
Filippous said that when his grandfather started the business he never dreamed it would cross the Atlantic Ocean. He did however, make a promise that he would never manufacture something he would not give to his own children.
"We have proudly become a part of your community by building the first plant outside Europe here," he said.
Bray said, "We thank you because everybody here, the government authorities and representatives we've met have been very business like," Filippous said. "The local people have welcomed us."
