Shuttered Frito-Lay Plant in Liberty, N.Y., Coming Back as a Chicken Facility
A shuttered PepsiCo facility in Liberty, N.Y., has been bought by an affiliate of Hudson Valley Farms, which plans to lease it to White Lake Foods LLC, apparently to produce chicken products under contract to Hudson Valley Farms.
The local news source, River Reporter, said White Lake Foods has produced chicken products for retail distribution for Hudson Valley Farms and other businesses since 2020, primarily as a private-label manufacturer.
The Liberty facility previously was operated by PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division, but PepsiCo announced in February 2025 it would close the plant, eliminating nearly 300 jobs. 200 to 250 of those could come back, according to plans of the new operator.
Marcus Henley, manager of White Lake Foods, told River Reporter the company expects to begin with packaging operations, potentially within 90 days. Other uses, including poultry processing and food manufacturing, would depend on approvals for those activities, but he hoped the plant would by fully operational in 12-18 months.
Sale price was not disclosed.
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Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.