U.S. Gears Up for Fourth-Quarter Food & Beverage Project Starts
With a variety of sectors including meat and poultry processing, dairy, baked goods, and warehousing and distribution, the Food & Beverage Industry represents an extremely varied and highly important part of life in the U.S. As the industry changes and companies expand, new projects are consistently emerging. Industrial Info is tracking more than $17 billion worth of U.S. Food & Beverage projects that are set to kick off in fourth-quarter 2023.
Thanks in part to a massive Walmart Incorporated (NYSE:WMT) (Bentonville, Arkansas) project in Illinois, the warehousing and distribution segment leads the industry in terms of overall project value.
Walmart announced plans for the $1.2 billion, 1.2 million-square-foot cold-storage distribution center in Belvidere, Illinois, about 70 miles northwest of the heart of Chicago, in June, with the promise to break ground on the facility by the end of the year. The facility is expected to go into operation in 2027 and will have state-of-the-art equipment and systems to handle distribution of items such as fresh produce, eggs, dairy, flowers and frozen goods to nearby stores. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Food & Beverage Project Database can click here for the project report.
After warehousing and distribution, the beverages, dairy, and packaged and prepared foods segments are in a tight run for second place, with a little more than $2 billion in planned fourth-quarter project starts each. One of the largest dairy projects is from a name you may not associate with milk products. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) (Atlanta, Georgia) is building a grassroot plant in Webster, New York, near Rochester, to manufacture its Fairlife milk products. Fairlife products use "ultra-filtered" milk that removes much of the lactose and other sugars, leaving behind more protein and calcium. In addition to milk, Fairlife also manufactures protein and meal replacement shakes. Coca-Cola acquired the Fairlife brand in 2020. Construction on the facility is set to wrap up in late 2025. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.
Within the beverages segment, Niagara Bottling LLC (Diamond Bar, California) is planning to launch four projects in the fourth quarter: two in Texas and one each in Louisiana and Florida. In Texas, Niagara plans to construct a 1.2 million square-foot grassroot bottling and distribution center in Lancaster. The company will add a distribution building at its bottling plant in Temple, Texas. The expansion project is expected to be completed next summer, followed by the grassroot project later in the year. Subscribers can click here for related reports.
Among the projects in the packaged and prepared foods segment, Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) (Battle Creek, Michigan) is preparing to launch a series of projects at its breakfast bar-manufacturing plant in Wyoming, Michigan. The projects include:- Replacing six feeding systems
- Replacing an old palletizer with a new robotic machine
- Constructing two new robotic case packers
Some of the projects such as the palletizer replacement will be short in duration and completed by the end of the year, while others such as the feeding system replacements will extend into 2024. Subscribers can click here for related reports.
Other sectors showing strength include the agricultural products sector, thanks largely to the growing demand for soybean oil used as feedstock in the manufacture of renewable diesel. In Hennepin, Illinois, Marquis Incorporated (Hennepin) is establishing a grassroot soybean crush facility that will be able to process 80 million bushels of soybeans per year to produce not only oil but 1.5 million tons per year of soybean meal for livestock feed. The plant is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025. Subscribers can click here for more information.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Food & Beverage Database can click here to view reports for all of the projects discussed in this article and click here to view the related plant profiles.
