Colteryahn Dairy, a 94-year-old business in Carrick, is the last of its kind in the city of Pittsburgh.
The family-owned milk processing company, along with its co-family owned CoGo's chain of convenience stores, has managed to thrive as other regional processors closed or were gobbled up by larger competitors. The future is bright because it has diversified, said Carl Colteryahn III, CEO and grandson of the business' founder.
"I have a lot of the business that the big dairies don't want," Colteryahn said at the dairy plant's offices on Brownsville Road.
The 50-employee company started in 1917 as a bottler of milk, selling it out of a storefront beside the Carrick plant and delivering it to nearby homes. But that world disappeared as refrigeration allowed suppliers to take their milk farther and then as people shifted their milk-buying to grocery stores. And with those changes, the dozens of small dairies that once dotted neighborhoods around Pittsburgh also disappeared.
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