Miceli Dairy Products is planning a $20 million expansion of its Cleveland, OH, cheese operations. The project will nearly double the size of its existing operations and include the construction of a new cheese factory. Plans also call for purchasing about 13 acres for a new waste-to-energy facility. The expansion is expected to create 50 jobs.


Nestlé will build a new aseptic milk production plant in Ararquara, Brazil, which is expected to produce 100 million liters of drinking milk annually. With an investment of about $65 million, the facility is expected to generate more than 1,600 jobs in the region. Nestlé also opened a global R&D center for biscuits and cereal-based snacks in Santiago, Chile. The new facility will benefit from synergies between R&D and biscuit manufacturing by being based at Nestlé’s industrial site in Maipú, which employs more than 1,200 people.


Hilmar Cheese, Dalhart, TX, is spending $100 million to expand its cheese production facility, adding milk storage, production lines and processing technology to produce American-style cheese in 40- and 640-lb blocks. The plant, which employs 200 people, expects to add 50 more to the roster by the end of the year.


Reser’s Fine Foods is expanding its plant in Halifax County, NC, about 90 miles northeast of Raleigh. A three-phase expansion, it is expected to create an additional 500 jobs over the next five years. Phase one is planned for this year, at a cost of about $15 million.