Texas’ famously pro-business climate, skilled workforce attracts family-owned businesses to Terrell.
Maintaining a family-owned business through the generations is no small task. It is accomplished through meticulous planning and attention to detail. As the generations continue, family-owned companies have to adapt to the times and make strategic moves when opportunity knocks.
Recently, two family-owned companies have elected to do just that — planting new roots in the East Texas town of Terrell.
Terrell is located just 25 miles east of downtown Dallas, at the junction of U.S. 80 and I-20. A major thoroughfare for the region, nearly 60,000 people pass through the town each day. An ideal location for companies that need to move goods to market, Terrell is located within a two-day drive of 93% of the U.S. market.
Additionally, Terrell is home to approximately 17,975 people, with access to a workforce of over 40,000 people.
Kevin Danzeisen’s family-owned dairy business which recently selected Terrell for its new site. Danzeisen said his company’s expansion into the Texas market by way of its new facility in Terrell is akin to his grandfather’s steps when starting Danizen Dairy in Phoenix, Arizona, more than 60 years ago.
In early 2020, Danzeisen and his company, called 1836 Farms in Texas, expanded in order to offer organic Texas-made milk in glass bottles to grocers across the Lone Star State’s major markets. The company plans to hire 20 people initially with plans to hire up to 50 in the next two years.
The company’s distinctive, reusable glass bottles and high-quality organic milk — with several quirky flavors, including banana, coffee and root beer — has become a highly desired product in grocery stores like Kroger, Sprouts and Whole Foods in both states.
A key component to the dairy’s model — reusable glass bottles — requires easy access to roads reaching the state’s major markets. The dairy delivers the bottles to grocers and accepts returns from the stores, allowing the bottles to be recycled, sanitized, and refilled before going back on store shelves. Terrell’s logistical advantages became a key consideration for the company’s site selection process.
“We’re really excited about Texas in general,” Danzeisen said. “Specifically, in Terrell, the way the highways are situated with I-20 and the other major intersections, we could get to other metropolises fairly easy and still be close to Dallas, our main hub. Terrell also has that small-town feeling. We wanted to be part of a community that we could impact and help in that way. We couldn’t be more excited about what Terrell has going on over there. We think it’s a great place with a lot of opportunities to grow in the next 20 years.”
Terrell Economic Development Corporation won these awards for the 1836 Farms Project: 2021 Community Economic Development Award for Population 10,001 to 20,000 and 2021 Community Economic Development Award for Secondary Benefits.
