Goya Foods celebrated the expansion of its facility in Ill. where it has been operating for over half a century. The Chicago-area facility, totaling nearly 300,000 sq.-ft., will double the amount of food distribution throughout the Midwest, including an additional 10 states and emerging markets. The building is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and machinery in order to operate more efficiently and to support Goya’s growth worldwide. Photo courtesy Goya Foods

Bowery Farming, a vertical farming company, opened its largest, most technologically advanced and sustainable commercial smart farm in Bethlehem, Pa. Transforming a former Bethlehem Steel brownfield from a non-arable industrial site into modern farmland, the company’s newest commercial farm lays the groundwork for the next chapter in climate-smart agriculture. Photo courtesy Bowery Farming

T. Hasegawa USA officially opened a new 60,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., which augments the company’s manufacturing resources in the U.S. market by 50 percent and expands capabilities in sweet flavor production and technology. Photo courtesy T. Hasegawa USA

 PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA), a division of PepsiCo, opened a new $8.5 million, 172,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Commerce, Ga. The full-scale distribution center will create 50 new jobs and distribute almost six million cases of beverages—including Pepsi, MTN Dew, Gatorade, bubly, Aquafina and Pure Leaf—per year across 26 routes to customers in 28 counties, a capacity increase that will be felt throughout Ga. cities Gainesville, Rome, Athens, Stone Mountain and Atlanta. Photo courtesy PBNA

World Distribution Services (WDS), a provider of warehouse logistics solutions, has announced enhancements to its new Linden, N.J.-based distribution facility, providing much-needed additional warehouse capacity to the N.Y./N.J. port community. Additional racking to maximize available space will allow for more than 20,000 racked positions and 200,000 sq. ft. for bulk storage. Photo courtesy WDS

Gray, a fully integrated, global services A&E firm for the food and beverage market, and Häns Kissle, a provider of high quality, fresh prepared foods, broke ground on a new 98,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility that will produce RTE deli salads and fresh prepared foods. The facility is located in Gastonia, N.C., and is expected to be completed in 2023.

Oishii has opened a 74,000-sq.-ft. vertical strawberry farm at the old Anheuser-Busch factory in Jersey City, N.J., growing strawberries five rows deep in the retrofitted factory. The Jersey City facility consumes 60% less energy and 40% less water than the first-gen technology created and used at Oishii’s R&D facility in Kearny, N.J.

Founded in 2020, Company Distilling held the grand opening of its first newly-constructed distillery in Townsend, Tenn. 

FreshBrew, coffee and tea producer, has upgraded its Houston facility, adding 11 packing lines in a total 140,000 sq.-ft. for both the roasting plant and warehouse. The expansion, valued at $10 million, is expected to be complete in early 2023.

SinnovaTek, the Raleigh, N.C.-based food-processing company, which provides entrepreneurs and established companies access to a manufacturing line using technology licensed through North Carolina State University, is in the process of constructing a 100,000-sq.-ft. facility in Middlesex.

Gehl Foods, LLC, a food and beverage manufacturing company, has established operations in Walterboro, S.C. The company’s $46 million investment is creating 106 new jobs. Founded in 1896, the company is a producer of dairy-based and dairy-alternative shelf-stable beverages, cheese sauces, soups, broths, teas, wine and spirits and more. 

Molson Coors Beverage Company broke ground on a $65 million project to build a 200,000-sq.-ft. variety packing warehouse at its Fort Worth brewery. The facility will allow the company to bring additional hard seltzer production and final pack assembly in-house. The project will be completed later this year.

Lotus Bakeries plans to invest $84 million and add 62 jobs for its second expansion in Mebane, N.C. This expansion will add 171,000 sq.-ft., encompassing two additional production lines, warehouse operations and employee amenities.

Lion Beverage, a co-packer and brewer headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., has signed a lease to expand its already extensive manufacturing capabilities to a new 250,000-sq.-ft. facility at the Grimes Industrial Park in Pittston, Pa. The new $25 million facility—which will feature two new state-of-the-art canning lines capable of producing 1600 cans-per-minute, warehouse space for raw and finished goods, as well as a repack area—is set to open at the beginning of 2023.

Ruiz Foods in Denison, Texas, is investing $30 million to expand its facility in two phases. The first phase is estimated at about $16 million and the second phase is valued at approximately $14 million, both of which will be used to expand and modernize the plant through adding automation.

TexBev, a beverage co-packing company owned by Bishop Cider, will relocate operations from Dallas to Wild Acre’s Fort Worth facility and expand its capacity and capabilities with the addition of the equipment from Bishop’s Dallas cidery and Legal Draft’s Arlington brewery. At the Fort Worth site, there is ample room for continued expansion, as the property comprises nearly 200,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space and sits on 21 acres. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of May. 

Carolina Precision Foods LLC—a joint venture of Carolina Fresh Foods and owners of Lake Foods—plans to establish operations in Florence, S.C. The company’s $10 million investment will create 402 new jobs. Carolina Precision Foods LLC is a poultry further processing company that specializes in deboning, portioning, marination, custom further processing and mechanically separating food. The facility is expected to be online in August 2022.

Ferrero broke ground on a new $75 million, 70,000-sq.-ft. chocolate processing facility in Bloomington, Ill. to open in 2023. The company has upped the ante by investing another $214 million to expand the yet unfinished facility by another 169,000 sq.-ft., dedicated to producing Kinder Bueno chocolate bars, which is expected to be complete in 2024.

Nutramax Laboratories, a manufacturer and marketer of nutritional supplement products for people and pets, announced plans to expand operations in Lancaster, S.C. The company’s $30 million investment will create approximately 200 new jobs.

Hiram Walker in Fort Smith, Ark. is expanding its distilling operations by adding four new 50,000-gal. tanks and hiring 50 new employees.

Kroger is tentatively planning a $70 million expansion of its west Newark, Ohio-based Tamarack Farms Dairy, pending local agreements and approvals.

MONTONI and Morehouse Foods Canada have launched the construction of the company’s brand-new facility, which will incorporate its headquarters and a sauce and condiment production plant—a 90,000-sq.-ft. building that will be completed by January 2023. The new state-of-the-art facility will triple the Québec, Canada company’s current capacity and create about 30 new jobs. 

Post Holdings plans to spend $110 million to expand its breakfast cereal plant in Sparks, Nev. The project is expected to be complete in 2025, adding 30 to 40 jobs.

O-AT-KA received approval to build a 3,200-sq.-ft. expansion to its facility in Batavia, N.Y. The plans call for two new 18,000-gal. tanks to increase capacities of cream-based liquor beverages.

Volpi Foods in Union, Mo. expects to increase production with a $7 million expansion, converting 35,600 sq.-ft. of unused space to include high-speed slicing lines and additional freezer space for its RTE packaged meats.

Spike Brewing is building a new $9 million, 73,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in the Milwaukee area. The operation is expected to be operational by early fall, 2023.