Chobani将收购Keurig Dr Pepper的Allentown工厂并投资12亿美元扩产高蛋白乳制品

Chobani LLC will invest $1.2 billion over five years in a Pennsylvania production plant as the yogurt maker expands into high-protein milk.

The company, which turned Greek yogurt into a grocery store staple and grew to an estimated $20 billion valuation in the process, said it will take over a Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. facility and warehouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and launch a new high-protein milk in the summer of 2027.

The investment positions privately-held Chobani to continue its rapid growth, fueled by widespread interest in high-protein foods. Yogurt in particular has benefited as GLP-1 weight-loss drug users shift their spending away from highly-processed snacks and toward protein-rich foods.

“Our goal is every time we enter a category, we see there’s an impact we can make and disrupt,” Chobani founder and Chief Executive Officer Hamdi Ulukaya said in an interview. He added that milk matches what consumers are currently looking for: “natural, good, nutritious food.”

Chobani will be taking on Coca-Cola Co., which has found success with its ultra-filtered milk brand, Fairlife. Ulukaya said Chobani will reduce sugar and remove water from its milk to boost protein content.

The company’s sales volume has grown 20% annually over the past three years, and Ulukaya said sales in 2026 are on track to reach about $4.6 billion. Instacart data shows that sales of Greek and Icelandic yogurt on the platform rose 8% from a year earlier in the first half of 2026.

Under the agreement, Chobani will assume control of the Allentown plant and will produce some Keurig products at the facility initially. Chobani will pay around $125 million to acquire the facility and warehouse, Keurig said.

‘Well Matched’

Chobani is also buying back an equity share that Keurig Dr Pepper obtained when Chobani purchased La Colombe in late 2023. Earlier the same year, Keurig Dr Pepper had purchased a 33% stake in the coffee company for $300 million. Chobani said it will pay $800 million to repurchase the stake. The transactions are expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.

Keurig said it plans to use the net proceeds to reduce its debt as it prepares to split its coffee and cold drinks businesses into two, independent companies.

Chobani and Keurig are expanding an existing distribution agreement for both La Colombe ready-to-drink lattes and Chobani’s new high-protein milk.

The transactions “reflect the success of our partnership with Chobani” and positions the Allentown facility “for continued growth under under an owner whose strategic priorities are well matched to the site,” Keurig Chief Executive Officer Tim Cofer said in a statement.

Keurig will retain some of its Allentown employees, with Chobani offering jobs to the rest of the facility’s workers, the companies said.

The 1.5 million-square-foot plant is expected to begin production next year. Chobani, which also makes creamers, is planning for up to 10 production lines at the site. At full capacity, it’s expected to use more than 3 billion pounds of Pennsylvania milk annually, or roughly 30% of all milk produced in the state.

The Chobani investment “is the largest private-sector investment in the history of Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry and will strengthen our dairy industry,” Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in the statement.

Chobani said last year it planned to spend more than $1 billion to build a new dairy processing plant in Rome, New York. It’s also investing to expand its Twin Falls, Idaho, plant and a La Colombe plant in Norton Shores, Michigan.

Ulukaya said Chobani is ending production of oat milk to make room for products that are in higher demand.

“We are heartbroken, but we really need the space” for other products, he said, adding that Chobani might return to making oat milk in the future.

Chobani filed for an initial public offering in 2021 but backed awaythe following year. Ulukaya said the company is “still looking at the options” and hasn’t made any decisions.