Idaho-based Glanbia Foods, the US cheese and whey ingredient business of Irish dairy Glanbia, last week unveiled an US$82m expansion of its Idaho sites in Gooding and Twin Falls.
As well as boosting the drying capacity of its Gooding and Twin Falls site, Glanbia Foods will plough money into the production of lactoferrin at its Twin Falls facility and expand high end whey protein production at Gooding to include whey protein isolate (WPI).
A 30 megawatt (MW) sub-station at its Gooding site and a unit specializing in the "in-house blending and agglomeration" of nutritional products have also been budgeted for.
Combined, Glanbia Foods believes these investments will enable it to meet growing demand for whey ingredients.
"This expansion is strongly aligned with our strategy of adding further value to our whey stream," said Daragh Maccabee, executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Glanbia Foods.
Glanbia Foods has been headquartered in Idaho for 25 years, and currently processes around 12m pounds (lbs) of Idaho milk per - around a third of all milk produced in the state.
Given its deep roots in the state, Glanbia Foods decided Idaho was the "right location" for its "new activities."
"We have a long track record in Idaho, and the support of the state and local communities was instrumental in our choice of Idaho for renewed expansion," said Maccabee.
It expects its investments, forecast to create around 50 jobs, to be fully operational by 2016.