PepsiCo-Muller Joint Venture Yogurt Plant Opens

June 11, 2013
Muller Quaker Dairy comes on line in Batavia, N.Y.; hoping for LEED certification.

Officials from PepsiCo Inc. and Germany’s Theo Muller Group on June 3 cut the ribbon on Upstate New York’s newest yogurt manufacturing plant.

Muller Quaker Dairy is a 350,000-sq.-ft. facility sitting on 82 acres of land in Batavia, N.Y. We earlier had an estimated cost for the plant at $206 million. Initially it will have three production lines capable of more than 120,000 cups of yogurt per hour, although the facility can accommodate up to eight lines. It will employ approximately 180.

The company is targeting LEED certification for the facility, which would make it the largest LEED-certified dairy manufacturing plant in the world.

The new facility will serve as a national production and distribution center for Muller yogurt, which launched in select regional markets in 2012.

The company is a joint venture between PepsiCo and Theo Muller, formed in 2011. It marks the entry into the U.S. market for the German dairy and a reach into a new category for PepsiCo, “transforming our portfolio for the future and strengthening our position in high-growth food and beverage categories,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said at the ribbon cutting. “We have invested over many years to expand our global nutrition offerings in ways that allow us to capitalize on new growth opportunities, and the new Muller Quaker Dairy facility demonstrates continued progress against this key business priority.”

Products manufactured at the plant will include Muller Corner, Muller Greek Corner and Muller FrutUp varieties.

Upstate/Central New York is home to a surprising number of yogurt companies and plants: Chobani in Norwich and South Edmeston, Fage in Johnstown, Alpina in Batavia.

Sponsored Recommendations

Revolutionizing Healthcare: The Impact of Digitalization in Biopharma Innovation

Biopharma enables an entirely new level of innovation that’s simply not possible in conventional drug development. It’s an approach that can fundamentally change the way healthcare...

Navigating the Automotive Industry's Electric Future

The automotive industry is at a turning point. Bloomberg estimates that by 2040, 54% of new vehicle sales will be electric. And by 2030, we’re looking at 100% of passenger vehicles...

Unified Process Control Brings Operational Clarity

Inland Empire Utilities Agency replaces its SCADA enterprise system with the PlantPAx Distributed Control System and reduces complexity for operators

PlantPAx DCS Improves Operational Reliability

KC Water calls on R.E. Pedrotti to replace obsolete wastewater SCADA solution with a unified Modern Distributed Control System (DCS).