MONTICELLO, WIS. – Custom cheese packaging manufacturer Freshpack announced the recent retirement of its procurement manager, Andy Hendrickson, a longtime veteran of the dairy industry.

Hendrickson, who got into the field by working at a cheese plant while he was still in college, retired in August, marking the end of his 44-year career.

During his more than four decades in the business, Hendrickson went from unloading milk trucks, to working on the floor at dairy facilities to taking on management duties involving operations, the supply chain, data and procurement.

He also worked for Emmi Roth and Roth Käse during the second half of his career, which included a brief retirement in 2014, before he reconsidered and began working for Freshpack.

“Andy has a code he lives by,” said Todd Kriebs, president of Freshpack, “He does what he says he’s going to and expects the same of others.”

Jim Natzke, who was once Hendrickson’s boss at Roth Käse, said, “His competence made all of us more competent. He was often the smartest guy in the room but didn’t shout it. He had a big impact in a quiet way.”

Hendrickson said he considered his decision-making ability one of his strengths.

“I’ve always been able to clean up issues with inventory and forecasting with the right data,” he said.