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GEA is investing around $25 million to expand its Janesville campus in Wisconsin, US, adding around 70,000 square feet of office, manufacturing, research and industrial space.
The expansion is intending to strengthen the company’s manufacturing, assembly, testing, training and application capabilities for food, beverage and nutrition processing customers across North America.
Construction is expected to begin in Autumn 2026, with the new facility targeted for completion by the end of 2027 and full operations scheduled to begin in early 2028.
The new space will bring GEA’s manufacturing, assembly and application teams closer together at the Janesville site. According to the company, this will give customers more direct access to its technical experts and enable faster progression from process testing to production planning.
The facility will focus on technologies within GEA’s Nutrition Plant Engineering portfolio, with drying technologies among its core capabilities. It will also provide additional infrastructure for customer and internal training and application testing.
Klaus Stojentin, CEO of GEA’s Nutrition Plant Engineering Division and member of the GEA Executive Board, said: “Food and beverage producers in North America are looking for partners who can combine process expertise, practical testing and reliable project execution close to their markets.
Expanding our Janseville campus is a direct response to that. It builds real capability in a region that matters strategically to both our customers and to GEA.”
The investment builds on GEA’s existing operations in Janesville. In 2024, the company opened a production, repair, logistics and training facility at the site supporting equipment including separators, decanters, valves and pumps.
In 2025, GEA added its New Food Application & Technology Center, providing pilot-scale testing capabilities for applications including precision fermentation, cell cultivation and plant-based foods.
Ana Rusa, VP of Nutrition Plant Engineering, North America, said: “Customers don’t just want us nearby, they want to get something done while they're pilot-scale here. In Janesville, a customer can walk a process from a testing question to a production plan without switching teams or sites.”
The planned development will combine a 13.94-acre city-owned parcel with 16 acres already owned by GEA, creating a campus of nearly 30 acres.
The project is also expected to support local employment with the creation of 52 full-time equivalent positions.
