 In October 1932, Charles Catalana, was a lamp worker at the Kimble Glass Works in Vineland , NJ . He began a part time job delivering 24 quarts of milk from the back seat of his 1926 Chrysler sedan. Today from these humble beginnings Cumberland Dairy has grown to be one of the nation's largest producers of specialty dairy products producing over 20 million gallons of products annually with sales of 60 million dollars.
After one year as a distributor, sales had risen in his part time home delivery business. He and his wife, Elizabeth, decided to form Cumberland Dairy in October 1933 in the garage behind their South Avenue home in Bridgeton , NJ . The small plant on Henry Street produced 110 quarts of milk per day when it opened with just three employees, Charlie, Elizabeth and her brother, Joseph DeLuca.
Many other dairies also began in the early part of the twentieth century. At one time or another there were 32 dairies in the city of Bridgeton alone. The 1930's proved to be difficult times for many new companies. The flood of 1934, which split the City in half by the destruction of the bridges over the Cohansey River , proved to be an interesting challenge to the dairy. Cumberland Dairy bottled the milk on one side of the river and it was ferried across in a row boat for delivery on the west side of the city.
In 1941, Charlie considered buying a dairy farm to supply the raw milk for his bottling plant. However, World War II broke out and those plans were never carried out. Cumberland Dairy survived during the difficult war years and by the early 1950's Cumberland Dairy had five full time employees and had outgrown the small plant. Carmine Catalana III (the company's current Chairman of the Board) had grown up in the business and after completing high school spent three years in the business then joined the US Army in April 1951. After fulfilling his tour of duty in March 1954, he returned home and formed a partnership with his mother and father to expand the business.
 A new processing plant was constructed on the north side of Bridgeton which opened in March 1955. It was the newest dairy plant in the area and the company's first by-line was formed: " South Jersey 's Most Modern Dairy." The company grew in each successive year and sales were over 50,000 dollars in 1956.
In order to offset the slow summer milk sales, Charlie began producing ice cream mixes in the late 1950's. This proved to be a profitable product line that helped to differentiate Cumberland in the competitive milk business. Sales continued to grow into the 1960's. In August of 1966, Cumberland Dairy was faced with its most serious setback to date with the passing of its founder Charles Catalana at the age of 62.
In the early 1970's, Cumberland Dairy began making milkshake mix for a new drive in restaurant in the area called "McDonald's". As the new restaurants opened, Cumberland Dairy was servicing 15 locations in southern New Jersey . The restaurants were serviced with a personal attention that many other larger companies could not provide. But in 1972, McDonald's put the business for the entire area out to a bid. Cumberland Dairy was the second lowest bidder and thus lost the business it had worked so hard to attain.
However, the service of their new dairy suppliers was not what the franchise owners had come to expect and slowly  many of them returned to Cumberland . In March of 1974, Cumberland experienced the biggest break of their 41 year history. McDonald's had a quality problem with their main dairy supplier and asked Cumberland to produce dairy products for over 200 restaurants literally overnight. Cumberland Dairy worked seven days a week to keep up with the production. Finally, things settled away and McDonald's offered Cumberland as many stores as it could handle. They began by servicing 61 restaurants in the Delaware Valley with milkshake mix, milk and coffee creamers. Eventually, Cumberland became a full service refrigerated distributor as well as a dairy processor for McDonald's.
 Cumberland had outgrown the processing plant by late 1977 and purchased a 36 acre tract of land in Rosenhayn and built a 7200 square foot refrigerated warehouse and 2000 square foot office. This new warehouse would accommodate all the refrigerated products for McDonald's and convert the Bridgeton facility back to being a processing plant only.
In January 1985, Cumberland Dairy began operation of the first United States installation of the DASI Ultra High Temperature Pasteurization System. This system was the first UHT system that can give dairy products a longer shelf life through sterilization, but still maintain a fresh flavor. Cumberland Dairy has been the subject of several articles in dairy and food trade journals because of the innovative processing and packaging techniques.
In February of 1986, McDonald's decided to consolidate all their Delaware Valley distribution into one center located in Aston , PA. There was no longer a need for Cumberland as a refrigerated products distributor. Cumberland Dairy had made a full circle back to its role of a processor.
With this portion of the business gone, Cumberland Dairy looked for other avenues to pursue. With the capabilities supplied by the DASI system, Cumberland Dairy was able to expand its distribution and sales through a unique product line. The sales of product doubled within the first two years and are still climbing. New products and new customers have helped to drive the business to sales of over 60 million dollars and production of over twenty million gallons annually.
Along with the increased business came a need for further expansions at both facilities. The Bridgeton processing plant was expanded in 1989 and then again in 2001. The Rosenhayn distribution warehouse more than doubled in size with a 1991 expansion.
Cumberland Dairy is proud of their long history with many of their customers. They recently celebrated their 30th anniversary with McDonalds. In those 30 years, they have seen that business grow to where Cumberland Dairy products are enjoyed in over 2000 McDonald restaurants. Similar histories are being written with other customers such as Wawa Food Markets, Rita's Water Ice, most recently with White Wave Inc., packaging their Silk brand Soymilk.
Numerous other private distributors and dairies are now counted among Cumberland Dairies loyal customers. Many of these are private label customers that count of Cumberland Dairy to produce the high quality products that carry their own company name. Others handle the full line of milks, creams and frozen dessert mixes line of dairy items that carry Cumberland Dairy's own Freshlife label.
The operation and management of the company is now in the hands of the third generation of Catalanas. With Carmine Catalana IV as the company President, Frank Catalana as the Vice President of Operations, and David Catalana as Vice President of Sales, the company and its management are set to take on the challenges ahead.
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