Great Lakes Region in Top Three Areas for Food & Beverage Project Spending in 2005

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). According to data extracted from Industrial Info’s Project Spending Database, the Food & Beverage Industry spent about $919 million dollars during the 2005 calendar year on new construction, plant expansions and maintenance-related projects.

Eighty-five projects commenced groundbreaking in 2005 in the Great Lakes region, representing over $919 million in spending. The Great Lakes region includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Click on the image at right to view a breakdown of project spending in the Great Lakes for 2005

The largest of the projects in the region is a new Eco-Agricultural Campus planned by Belmont Bio-Ag, LLC in Belmont, Wisconsin. The company is developing a $100 million agricultural campus that will consist of a 20,000 head cattle feed Lot, 11.2-acre greenhouse, 50 million gallon per year ethanol plant, as well as an 8-megawatt power plant to process waste streams into value-added products. The project is expected to be complete by late 2007

Another large project that kicked off last year was an $83 million expansion of Leprino Foods’ Allendale, Michigan cheese plant. Local contractor Lamar Construction (Holland, Michigan) began construction early last year on this project and completion is scheduled for August of 2006.

And in Indiana, Louis Dreyfus announced plans to build a $170 million agro-industrial park that will be the largest of its kind in the world. The complex will consist of a soybean processing plant, a biodiesel plant and a 100 million gallon per year fuel ethanol plant in Claypool, Indiana.

In Kentucky, Makers Mark Distillery indicated early plans to invest $35 million to expand their distillery in Loretto. In Illinois, Kuna Foodservice announced plans to build a new $24 million foodservice warehouse in Dupo, Illinois. And in Ohio, the largest project uncovered was a new $80 million egg farm in Lewistown planned by Fremont Farms.

Various other new and expansion projects came from a variety of companies within the Food and Beverage industry. There were projects planned by seafood processors, beef packers, snack food producers, tobacco companies, poultry processors and cold storage providers.

And according to Industrialinfo.com’s 2006 Global Industrial Outlook, spending for the first quarter of 2006 in the Great Lakes region is forecast to be in excess of $181 million and 32 new projects have already been uncovered for the New Year and that number continues to grow monthly.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.