Berner Food & Beverage celebrates manufacturing facility expansion
The company hosted a ribbon-cutting and grand opening event on September 20.
On September 20, Dakota, Ill.-based Berner Food & Beverage LLC hosted a ribbon-cutting event to mark the official opening of its newly expanded manufacturing facility. The expansion triples the manufacturing space at the state-of-the-art Dakota manufacturing facility, offering additional beverage production capabilities allowing for continued growth in the future, Berner said.
“We are thrilled to be here today with many of our partners — including our valued customers, local dignitaries, news outlets and our dedicated, hard-working Berner team, as we mark this momentous milestone in Berner’s history,” said Berner CEO Kurt Seagrist. “The new Berner Food & Beverage is about much more than this new state-of-the-art facility. The Berner legacy began back in 1943 with Arnold Kneubuehl and his family-owned dairy processing company.
“Over the years, Berner earned a strong reputation for unmatched product quality and cutting-edge R&D capabilities resulting from decades of experience as a cheese manufacturer and producer of high-quality, shelf-stable dairy-based products,” he added. “Then in November 2015, we were acquired by Peak Rock Capital and our transformation accelerated. The leadership at Peak Rock recognized our potential and encouraged our strategic growth strategy development, so that we can better serve our customer partners, today as well as tomorrow.“
With the expansion, Berner now boasts more than 285,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 170,000 square feet of warehousing space. The company said it also implemented new and improved quality standards and expanded its service support teams to exceed customer expectations. In addition, it added updated equipment to existing lines to allow all the Berner team to use the latest retort technology and manufacturing equipment to deliver even better-tasting beverages and other products to private label and contract manufacturing customers.
“Berner’s vision of growth is not stopping with this ribbon cutting,” Seagrist said. “We strategically built in room for continual growth in another production line, beyond the all-new beverage line, with additional capacity for expansion.
“The beverage category is booming, and we are now in a position to support our customer partner’s needs today as well as their future growth,” he added, “as we strive to become the leading supplier serving the food and beverage industry and expand our portfolio in the growing RTD coffee market.”
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