Chobani will break ground on a very, very big natural foods plant on the Triangle property at the Grifiss Business and Technology Park in Rome, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced during a press conference at the Sky Dome in Rome on Tuesday morning.
How big? Consider the numbers in press releases from Empire State Development and Chobani:
- The facility will cost $1.2 billion.
- It will be 1.4 million square feet in size.
- The plant will be able to produce more than 1 billion pounds of dairy products a year.
- It will bring more than 1,000 jobs to the area, nearly doubling Chobani’s workforce in New York.
- Once it reaches full capacity, the facility will process more than 12 million pounds of milk a day.
- The plant will be able to house up to 28 production lines.
- The company will buy an estimated 6 billion pounds of raw milk from dairy farms in the state each year once the new facility reaches its full capacity, up from the over 1 billion pounds it currently purchases each year.
“Through this partnership with Chobani, we’re revitalizing Upstate New York’s manufacturing sector one spoonful at a time,” Hochul said in a statement. “Chobani has been a major employer in the Mohawk Valley for decades, and this massive new $1.2 billion investment will bring more than 1,000 good-paying jobs to Oneida County — the largest natural food manufacturing investment in American history.”
About Chobani
Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya bought a tiny, former Breyer’s yogurt plant in West Edmeston in Chenango County in 2005. Since then, the original yogurt plant has expanded beyond recognition, Chobani’s Greek yogurt has become the best-selling yogurt brand in the country and a second yogurt plant opened in Twin Falls, Idaho in 2012.
Chobani announced a $500 million expansion in Twin Falls last month.
The company has also expanded its product line to include oat milk and creamers. It acquired coffee roaster La Colombe in 2023 and began selling cold-pressed espresso and lattes on tap to cafes, and ready-to-drink coffee beverages for retail sale.
Chobani began its journey in New York, working with dairy farmers and the community to build something special, and will now continue its journey in New York, Ulukaya said.
“We ignited a movement toward better food made with heart, passion, and only the highest-quality ingredients,” he said in a statement. “With our new plant in Rome and our original home in South Edmeston, we’re entering a new dimension, partnering with hard working people across the heartland of New York to build an ecosystem of natural food production and nourish families throughout the country.
“When you invest in people, in local communities, you’re not just building a business — you’re building a future.”
New Chobani plant
The plant will be built on a 150-acre parcel within the Triangle, creating a “thriving center of food production, enabling Chobani to keep up with soaring product demand and create runway for new innovations,” reads the Chobani press release.
”Rooted in the belief that business can be a force for good, the Rome plant is not a standalone operation — it’s designed to be a catalyst for an entire ecosystem of food innovation across the Mohawk Valley and beyond,” the release continues. “Chobani will partner with local farmers, businesses, colleges, universities, government leaders, entrepreneurs, and community organizations to drive new thinking, train the next generation of high-skilled labor and fuel economic opportunity far beyond the walls of the new plant, helping to transform the region.”
And the more-than-1,000 new, full-time jobs will come with competitive pay, a benefits package and on-site “health and wellness amenities,” according to Chobani. The company raised its minimum starting wage for workers to $20 an hour in 2023, according to the company website.
After a nationwide site for the best location, Chobani chose the Triangle site because of the area’s skilled workforce, including a high concentration of local veterans and graduates from area colleges; its easy access the East Coast’s population centers; the local availability of affordable housing and Hochul’s commitment to growing the state’s affordable housing stock; and resources offered by the state to support the creation of new jobs, officials said.
Those resources include up to $73 million in performance-based Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits for job creation from Empire State Development.
Chobani has promised to work with ESD to develop workforce training to give job opportunities at Chobani to underserved populations.
“This public-private partnership with Chobani will grow the market for New York’s dairy farmers, create jobs that provide a path to the middle class, and develop even more world-class food products that are widely recognized across North America,” said Hope Knight, ESD president, CEO and commissioner, in a statement. “Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, the state continues to invest in the companies and jobs that bolster New York’s economic vitality of today and tomorrow.”
Oneida County received a $23.6 million grant last year from the state’s Focused Attraction of Shovel-Ready Tracts New York, or FAST NY, program for infrastructure and transportation improvements. At the time, officials said the site would be a semiconductor supply chain campus with 3.9 million square feet of developable space.
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. seems happy with the change in plan.
“This is a generational win for Oneida County and the entire Mohawk Valley,” he said in a statement. “We believed in the potential of the Griffiss Triangle site and invested over $6 million to make it shovel-ready because we knew it could attract a world-class partner like Chobani.”
The new plant will bring jobs that pay well, boost the local economy and “reaffirm our region as a hub for innovation and opportunity,” he added.
New York’s nearly 3,000 dairy farms produce 16.1 billion pounds of milk a year, making dairy the largest segment in the state’s $8 billion agricultural industry, according to the state. New York is the country’s fifth largest dairy state and the biggest producer of yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese and cottage cheese.
“This is tremendous news for our state and for our dairy farmers, who will be supplying milk to this state-of-the-art processing facility,” New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said in a statement. “Chobani has long been a part of New York’s world-class dairy industry, and this feels like a real full-circle moment to welcome them to another region in our state.”
This story was updated to add new information.
