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Released March 14, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. per capita consumption of dairy products reached a record-tying 661 pounds per person in 2023, the last year for which data are available. Although fluid milk consumption has declined over recent years, cheese and butter consumption surpassed all previous records, averaging 6.5 pounds of butter and 42.3 pounds of cheese per person in 2023. Capitalizing on this are U.S. dairy producers, which represent more than just cows on a farm, but cutting-edge factories to produce a range of milk products. Industrial Info is tracking nearly $12 billion in current and planned spending at U.S. dairy plants.

Despite the decline in fluid milk consumption, one of The Coca-Cola Company's (NYSE:KO) (Atlanta, Georgia) fastest-growing brands has been its ultra-filtered Fairlife milk. Fairlife is filtered so that it contains a higher concentration protein, less sugar and no lactose. The brand was introduced in 2015 nationwide and surpassed $1 billion in sales in 2022. In a third-quarter 2024 conference call, Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer James Robert B. Quincy stated that one of the key factors inhibiting further growth of the product line was a lack of production capacity. But Quincy highlighted the solution: a grassroot Fairlife plant in Webster, New York.

The 745,000-square-foot facility will produce not only Fairlife's signature milk, but also the company's high-protein Core Power and Nutrition Plan shakes. Work on the plant kicked off early last year, and the plant is expected to be operational in late 2025 or early 2026. The Fairlife project, with an investment value in excess of $650 million, ranks as one of the leading active dairy projects in the U.S. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Food & Beverage Project Database can learn more by viewing the project report.

Another project valued above $600 million is set to kick off later this year in Boone, Iowa, where Daisy Brand LLC (Dallas, Texas) plans to establish a factory for its popular, nationally available sour cream and cottage cheese lines. Daisy's website notes that its sour cream has grown to more than 50% of U.S. market share, making it the No. 1 brand in all 50 states. Similarly, Daisy is the market share leader for cottage cheese. The USDA notes that cottage cheese consumption ticked up in 2023, rising to 2.1 pounds per person, a level not seen since 2019. The Boone plant will join three other Daisy manufacturing facilities, located in Garland, Texas; Casa Grande, Arizona; and Wooster, Ohio. Daisy's new 750,000-square-foot Iowa plant is expected to be completed in late 2026. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for more details on the project.

Darigold Incorporated (Seattle, Washington) is investing $550 million to construct a 400,000-square-foot grassroot plant that will manufacture butter and powdered milk products. The plant will include two milk dryers and two packaging lines for powdered milk products, two butter churns, two bulk butter packaging lines (for commercial and institutional customers) and five consumer butter packaging lines. When fully operational, the facility will be able to produce nearly 260 million pounds of powdered milk products and 175 million pounds of butter annually. The project is expected to be finished in the near future, about two years after construction commenced. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Food & Beverage Project Database can learn more by viewing the project report.

Tasty treats are on the menu from another project underway in Dunkirk, New York, which will expand production of ice cream novelties. Wells Enterprises Incorporated (Le Mars, Iowa) manufactures some of the U.S.' leading brands of frozen dairy treats, including Blue Bunny products, Halo Top lower calorie and sugar ice creams, and the Blue Ribbon ice cream line, which features more than 50 products. Wells plans to approximately double the Dunkirk's facility's footprint with a 200,000-square-foot building addition to replace aging production equipment and double production to about 20 million gallons of products per year. The expanded plant is expected to begin adding about 200 new jobs when it is completed later this year. Subscribers can click here to learn more about the project.

Nationwide grocer Walmart Incorporated (NYSE:WMT) (Bentonville, Arkansas) is underway with a pair of dairy projects in Valdosta, Georgia, and Robinson, Texas. The Georgia plant is set to be completed later this year, followed by the Robinson plant in 2026. Both plants will produce a range of gallon and half-gallon sizes of fluid milk with varying fat content as well as chocolate milk for the company's Great Value and Sam's Club's Member's Mark brands. Each plant will create about 400 jobs and serve about 750 stores, with the Valdosta plant servicing the southeastern U.S. and the Robinson plant supplying stores throughout the South, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and parts of Arkansas and Mississippi. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the reports on the Walmart's newest Georgia and Texas dairy projects.

Texas grocer H-E-B Grocery Company (San Antonio) is expanding a dairy facility in San Antonio by constructing a building addition and expanding the steam plant and electrical room to increase the production of ultra-high temperature, or UHT, milk, which due to its high pasteurization temperatures and sterile packaging, has a room-temperature shelf life of several months. Work on the project kicked off early last year and is expected to be completed this summer. Subscribers can click here to learn more about the project.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Database can click here to view reports for all of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).

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