How do you keep a family business viable for 100 years? You never stop looking forward.
That is exactly what Wright’s Dairy Farm of North Smithfield, RI has been doing since the 1930s, when they first started pasteurizing and bottling milk on-farm. They’ve diversified since then, adding a bakery, ice cream, and retail spaces that kept them profitable for over a century.
But by 2023, the milk at the core of their business needed its own boost.
As one of just two processors in the state to process their own milk from their own cows, Wright’s Dairy is an important part of the Rhode Island dairy story. The last facility upgrade happened in the 1980s and was starting to show its age and limit the farm’s growth. After three years of planning, designing, and building, their facility had expanded – but budget constraints postponed critical processing equipment upgrades.
That’s when Wright’s Dairy Farm applied for the 2023 NE-DBIC Existing Dairy Processor Expansion Grant.
A $425,642 award enabled Wright’s Dairy to purchase and install two new tanks, a screw-cap filler, a Clean-Out-of-Place (COP) sink system, and a high-efficiency heat exchanger.
The goals were lofty: Wright’s would expand processing capacity, improve food safety, improve safety and efficiency for labor, and bring more local milk to Rhode Islanders. Three years later, they’ve hit it out of the park with a domino of outcomes.
“This project was not an endpoint—it was a launchpad,” said Cate Kennedy, a fifth-generation family member who oversaw the grant.
It started with efficiency. New equipment brought average weekly processing volume 6,100 to 7,600 gallons per week, a 25% increase. That new milk gets bottled faster – across all bottle sizes, filling times dropped over 50% on average. And downtime between processing stages? They went from three hours per week to just 30 minutes.
“Our old processing space used to be a bit of a nightmare to work in,” Cate admits. “With the upgrades we’ve been able to make, working in the dairy is easier than ever.”
All this new milk meant they could meet demand and grow their market in two transformative ways.
First, Wright’s increased their weekly deliveries to the Rhode Island Food Bank from 300 gallons to 1,200 gallons per week. This farm-to-institution account provides needed stability, but also dramatically improves access to fresh, local milk for under-served communities.
Second, they secured a 500 gallon per week partnership with Dave’s Fresh Marketplace, a 9-store independent chain across Rhode Island. This partnership brings Wright’s Dairy products to areas they had never been offered.
These new retail accounts meant that Wright’s hasn’t had to sell their own milk on the commodity market since 2024.
In fact, you can add “regional aggregator” to Wright’s Dairy’s extensive resume: in the last two years, they’ve purchased over 165,000 pounds of milk from other local farms to meet increased need.
As if that weren’t enough, the Rhode Island Department of Health designated Wright’s new processing plant as a “model facility.” They use the space for regulator trainings, walk-throughs, and demonstrations. Being an industry leader is its own exciting outcome, says Cate.
“Our visibility with the Department of Health builds our credibility and gives us a platform to mentor other processors. It opens the possibility of participating in broader policy conversations around local food and dairy infrastructure.”
All of this is just a start. The next stage of expansion has room for new product development, new partnerships, and new internal workforce growth. In a time when many farms are downsizing, Wright’s is planning to add up to 30 cows to their herd to keep their own milk flowing.
Cate is more optimistic than ever. “With new equipment, stronger systems, and broader partnerships in place, we’re ready to scale both our impact and our contributions to the regional dairy community.”
“This project has been a breath of fresh air,” she continued. “I’m eager to see where we can go from here.”
Learn more about Wright’s Dairy at wrightsri.com.
