<body><div>When demand grows, capacity must follow, and few processors have experienced the success — as measured by demand — as Chobani, due to the explosive growth of its Greek yogurt and dairy coffee creamers.“Chobani has grown by approximately 20% annually over the past three years, fueled by growing demand for natural, wholesome, nutrient-dense foods,” says John Frost, chief commercial officer for Chobani. And in response to that fast-paced growth, the company has stepped up, announcing major expansions and new construction projects — more than $4 billion in capital investment across its U.S. manufacturing network, in fact.Taken alone, the significance and scope of the capital projects are impressive. Chobani’s major commitment to investing in capacity growth weighed heavily in its favor when it came time for Food Processing to choose Chobani to be its 2026 Processor of the Year.Looking back, the parallels remain between Chobani’s production expansion plans today and the Chobani that won our Processor of the Year award 14 years ago. In 2012, Chobani was riding high on another tidal wave in popularity of the then-somewhat-new Greek yogurt. The company had just begun building its Twin Falls, Idaho, facility, its first greenfield plant, with big plans for growth ahead.Success certainly wasn’t guaranteed — especially at the scale the company has experienced. Nevertheless, Twin Falls was pitched as the answer for Chobani to take another huge step forward by adding necessary production capacity.Fast-forward to 2026, and Chobani sings a similar tune about its operational needs: New processing lines and facilities are the answers to meeting consumers’ demand for more products. The big difference this time? It’s a choir of projects humming along together, rather than a solo capital investment carrying the tune.“While these investments help us keep up with this growing demand, our latest commitment in Allentown [Pa.] will also help power the next wave of innovation across Chobani — including well beyond the dairy aisle,” the company tells Food Processing.<h2>Building the next era</h2>Back in March 2025, the Twin Falls facility kicked off the capex shopping spree for Chobani — unprecedented because each project announced reportedly laid some claim to being the “company’s largest investment to date.” At Twin Falls, Chobani announced in March 2025 it was adding more than 500,000 sq. ft. of production space, expanding the Idaho facility’s total footprint to more than 1.6 million sq. ft. That reportedly will make Twin Falls one of the largest natural food production facilities in the country.“This expansion allows us to keep up with growing demand for products people already love — from Chobani High Protein Greek Yogurt and protein drinks to our creamers — while creating room for the next generation of innovation and growth,” the company notes. As of mid-October, the project has not been announced as being completed, but an Instagram post by Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya showed the team hosting Idaho Sen. Jim Risch and showing off the expansion. In April 2025, Chobani bested the investment in Twin Falls by announcing plans for a $1.2 billion dairy processing plant in Rome, N.Y. Construction on that project did not kick off right away, however, and in August 2026, the company offered an update that there had been delays, but the Rome plant remained a big part of the near future.Chobani chief impact officer Nishant Roy explained at the time that the dairy processor had to shift its priorities, investing more in its existing sites in order to get product to market faster and take advantage of growing demand for its products. Roy clarified to local media, however: “We are also not abandoning our commitment to Rome. We’re coming.”The Rome facility will stand some 50 miles north of South Edmeston, N.Y., where Ulukaya founded Chobani. “Rome is a different kind of milestone for us, because it's home,” Roy says. “New York [state] is where Chobani started, and Rome represents the next chapter of our story in the state.”That next chapter will be driven by 1.4 million sq. ft. of production space, which is expected to be able to manufacture more than 1 billion pounds of products. However, Roy says the Rome project isn’t a “one and done” plan.“We'll build the Rome campus in phases, allowing us to thoughtfully grow alongside the business,” he says. “Rather than constructing the entire site at once, we'll establish the foundation first, bring new capacity online as it's needed and continue expanding as demand grows.”Roy adds that the company anticipates that the three-phase construction project will begin sometime between the spring of 2027 and the summer of 2028.The company’s capital investment record hasn’t been limited to the Chobani-branded business. Chobani announced in March of this year it would embark upon a multi-phase, $567 million expansion of its La Colombe plant in Norton Shores, Mich., adding more than 200,000 sq. ft. Chobani acquired the maker of coffee and coffee-based beverages in 2023, and said it was expanding the plant in response to surging demand for La Colombe’s ready-to-drink lattes.Getting back to record-setting capital expense for the Chobani brand itself, the dairy processor made its most recent big capital splash in September, when it announced it would acquire a five-year-old Keurig Dr Pepper plant in Allentown, Pa., and invest $1.2 billion to expand and convert it into a dairy processing plant. It’s another mammoth financial commitment to expanding its production capacity, and the company calls it “another major step forward.”“[Allentown] will help us build on two decades of dairy expertise and unlock new ways to make even more from farm-fresh milk — including products with higher protein and less sugar than traditional milk,” the company explains. The 1.5-million-sq.-ft. facility is expected to produce a variety of products for Chobani when production begins — anticipated to be in 2027, according to the company.“The facility will also serve as a launchpad for a new generation of dairy products, including high-protein shakes made with natural ingredients,” the company says. “When fully built out, Allentown is expected to give us the scale and flexibility to grow these new platforms, bring innovations to market more quickly, and give consumers even more high-quality food and beverage choices.”</div></body>

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When demand grows, capacity must follow, and few processors have experienced the success — as measured by demand — as Chobani, due to the explosive growth of its Greek yogurt and dairy coffee creamers. “Chobani has grown by approximately 20% annually over the past three years, fueled by...

Chobani Is Building Its Future

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When demand grows, capacity must follow, and few processors have experienced the success — as measured by demand — as Chobani, due to the explosive growth 

Chobani Is Building Its Future

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