Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has sold a former Wild Flavors aseptics facility in Wisconsin to ingredients supplier Tru Aseptics.
The 65,000-square-foot site – located on a 5.2-acre site in Beloit, near the border with Illinois – will be used to provide contract packaging and pilot plant services to Tru’s customers in the field of shelf-stable, minimally processed ingredients for the fruit, dairy and vegetable or plant-based juice categories.
Tru anticipates hiring up to 50 employees by the middle of the year, and is actively recruiting qualified food industry professionals.
It was Tru’s executive vice-president of strategy, Scott Eckman, who helped to design and build the plant in 2003 – and, along with Tru co-founder James Hurley, has patented a ‘revolutionary’ ‘Hub & Spoke’ aseptic filling process to be initially utilised at the Beloit plant.
Hurley said: “The Tru Beloit facility will be among the most flexible and advanced aseptic processing facilities in North America. We will provide our customers with both low and high acid aseptic and HTST processing, unitised packaging, multiple filling and packaging formats, lower production volume requirements and a state-of-the-art aseptic/HTST pilot plant.”
And Stacey Huels, chairman and fellow co-founder of Tru, added: “We believe that our business model will enable us to be a trusted, independent partner with our customers to enable them to adapt in a market where the mega trend of consumers demanding better-for-you food and beverage ingredients is just ramping up.”
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