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Dreyer's opens one of the world's largest ice cream plants

FoodProcessing.com
10/20/2006

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Holdings, Inc. is celebrating the completion of a $210 million expansion of its Laurel Operations Center (LOC), the largest of six ice cream manufacturing facilities operated by the company in the U.S.

LOC will now make and distribute more than 120 different Dreyer's, Edy's, Haagen-Dazs, Nestle and Skinny Cow ice cream products and frozen snacks, including Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Light ice cream and Dreyer's/Edy's Dibs, bite-sized chocolate-coated ice cream snacks available in grocery stores.

Dreyer's has recently hired an additional 450 employees — mostly ice cream makers, and shipping and maintenance personnel — to staff the new 705,000 square-foot-facility. More than 725 employees now work at the Laurel plant and the company announced today it plans to add another 240 employees during the next two years, creating a total of nearly 700 new jobs with the expansion.

The plant has grown more than six-fold in size and boasts the square footage of more than 14 football fields. In addition to adding five new ice cream manufacturing lines to its previous six, Dreyer's has added the capacity for nine future lines. It also has built a 200,000 square-foot, -20°F ice cream curing facility, and 23-door distribution center. The five-story curing facility finishes off and temporarily houses freshly made ice cream before it is loaded onto freezer trucks and shipped to grocery stores, convenience stores, drug stores and restaurants throughout the U.S. Dreyer's expects LOC to produce nearly 58 million gallons of packaged ice cream and 370 million dozens of frozen snacks a year."Recognizing and celebrating good work is part of our Dreyer's culture.

Two years ago, the company completed a $100 million plant expansion in Bakersfield, California, which at that time, made the Bakersfield plant the largest in the Dreyer's network.