Chobani to spend $1.2B on New York dairy processing plant

Chobani is spending $1.2 billion to build a dairy processing plant in upstate New York, the largest facility investment by the company in the Greek yogurt giant’s history.

The 1.4 million square-foot facility in Rome, New York, is Chobani’s third dairy processing plant in the U.S. It’s being built on 150 acres of land once home to the former Griffiss Air Force Base and is expected to create more than 1,000 full-time jobs. The project is expected to be completed at the end of 2026, a company spokesperson said.

“New York is where Chobani’s journey began. It was the perfect spot to start Chobani 20 years ago, and it’s the perfect place to continue our story,” Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.

The plant will have the capacity to produce more than 1 billion pounds of dairy products each year. It will contain as many as 28 production lines able to process approximately 12 million pounds of milk per day.

Chobani, already one of the largest buyers of raw milk in New York, purchases more than 1 billion pounds of raw milk from dairy farms in the state annually. Once the new plant reaches full capacity, Chobani will purchase an estimated 6 billion pounds annually, it said.

While Chobani is best known for its original Greek yogurt, it has innovated the dairy staple with offerings such as zero sugar and high protein. The company also has expanded its portfolio with the launch of oat milk and creamers as well as ready-to-drink coffee through its $900 million acquisition of La Colombe in 2023.

The company is building the new plant “to keep up with soaring product demand and create runway for new innovations,”  a Chobani spokesperson told Food Dive.

The investment comes a month after Chobani announced it was spending $500 million to expand production by 50% at its Twin Falls, Idaho, facility.