Chobani Bets $1.2 Billion on High-Protein Milk in Pennsylvania

Chobani will spend $1.2 billion over five years turning a Keurig Dr Pepper plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, into a high-protein milk campus. On September 1, 2026, the yogurt maker said it will buy the 1.5 million-square-foot site and use it for milk with more protein and less sugar than ordinary milk, plus high-protein shakes.

Keurig Dr Pepper is selling its Chobani shares and the plant in the same package, then keeping the trucks that already haul Chobani drinks. The first cartons are not due until 2027, so this is a capacity bet, not a product you can buy this fall.

The Allentown Campus Chobani Just Bought

The site sits at 7356 Industrial Boulevard in Upper Macungie Township, in the Lehigh Valley. Keurig Dr Pepper opened it for production in 2021. Chobani, founded in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, will take the building, the machines, and the warehouse, then add new lines on top of that shell.

Chobani said the campus is within 500 miles of about 40 percent of the U.S. population. Keurig Dr Pepper’s own direct store delivery network, which will keep moving Chobani drinks, reaches about 80 percent of the country. Geography is doing as much work as the recipes.

THE ALLENTOWN WAGER

• The spend: About $1.2 billion over the next five years on the 1.5 million-square-foot campus.
• The payroll: 900 full-time jobs over those five years, with manufacturing and warehouse staff offered Chobani roles.
• The lines: Plans for up to 10 production lines dedicated to new dairy drinks, not another yogurt hall.
• The clock: Production under Chobani is expected to begin in 2027.

Chobani has grown about 20 percent a year for the past three years, and it already calls itself America’s No. 1 yogurt brand. Allentown is the company’s first dairy plant in Pennsylvania, and it is one piece of more than $4 billion Chobani is putting into U.S. plants.

What Chobani Will Make in Allentown

The company is not moving Greek yogurt cups down from New York. In its September 1 statement, Chobani said it will make milk with more protein and less sugar than traditional milk, sell that milk in multi-serve family packs, and use it as the base for high-protein shakes made with real ingredients.

A cup of 2% milk carries 8.23 grams of protein, according to USDA figures. Chobani has not published gram targets for the new Allentown milk, so shoppers cannot yet compare a carton to Fairlife or Core Power on the label. The bet is still clear: filter more protein into everyday milk, cut the sugar, and pour that base into shakes.

WHAT THE PLANT IS BUILT TO POUR

• Family milk: Multi-serve fresh milk with more protein and less sugar than a standard gallon.
• Protein shakes: Ready-to-drink shakes built on that same milk, aimed at people who already hunt grams on a bottle.
• Later formats: New food and drink platforms the company has not named, once the 10 lines are running.

Keurig drinks will not vanish overnight. Chobani will keep making certain Keurig Dr Pepper products at Allentown for a set period under a co-manufacturing deal, which is how a soda plant becomes a dairy plant without a hard stop.

When I first walked through this factory, I knew there was something special here. The facility, the equipment, the scale, but most importantly, the people. There’s already an incredibly talented team here that knows how to make great food. The foundation is strong. And we have an opportunity to build something extraordinary on top of it.

Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani

Ulukaya tied the recipes to Pennsylvania milk on purpose. “Then you look outside and see what surrounds it. Pennsylvania has generations of dairy families producing some of the best milk in America,” he said, comparing the state to Upstate New York, where Chobani started.

Protein Dairy Is Growing Faster Than Milk Itself

Ordinary milk has been flat for years. Protein on the label is the slice that still moves. Circana retail data, published in July 2026, put dairy products that carry protein claims at $10.4 billion inside a $104 billion U.S. dairy market, or 10 percent of the aisle by dollars.

Those protein-claim products grew 13.7 percent in value and 7.5 percent in volume over the prior year. The rest of dairy grew 2.0 percent in value and 0.3 percent in volume. High-protein milk itself rose 7.7 percent in value and 1.2 percent in volume while conventional milk sat still.

WHERE THE DOLLARS MOVED

Protein yogurt is still the loudest winner in that set, which is why Chobani already sells high-protein cups. Allentown is the next step: take the same claim into the milk case, where a 7.7 percent dollar lift is modest next to yogurt and still better than plain milk.

The shopper side of the wager shows up in survey work. The 2025 IFIC Food and Health Survey found that 70 percent of Americans try to consume protein, up from 62 percent in 2021, and that a high-protein diet was the most common eating pattern for a third straight year, at 23 percent, after 20 percent in 2024, 18 percent in 2023, and 4 percent in 2018.

That hunger is not the same as know-how. An IFIC spotlight survey in 2025 found that about one in three people had raised their protein intake in the past year, while about eight in 10 were unaware or unsure how many grams they should eat in a day. A plant that prints “more protein, less sugar” on a family carton is chasing that gap.

3 Billion Pounds for 4,300 Farms

At full run, Allentown is expected to take more than three billion pounds of Pennsylvania milk a year, about 30 percent of what the state produces now. Pennsylvania has the second-highest number of dairy farms in the country, and Chobani put the local count at more than 4,300 farms.

Governor Josh Shapiro called the project the largest private investment in Pennsylvania agriculture. The state is putting $50 million in PA SITES loans and grants into water, sewer, and energy work around the campus, and it is keeping $127 million in loans and grants open for dairy farmers who will have to fill that new demand.

Jayne Sebright, executive director of the Center for Dairy Excellence, said the plant “brings new market opportunity to Pennsylvania’s dairy industry, helping to strengthen the viability of these individual dairy farm families while revitalizing our rural communities that depend on the economic revenue and jobs these farms provide.”

Shapiro has kept repeating the farm math since the announcement, because the protein drinks only work if those 4,300 herds have a buyer for the extra milk.

Chobani’s $1.2 BILLION investment in our Commonwealth is the largest private sector deal we’ve ever secured for Pennsylvania Agriculture.

Those dollars will not only create 900 NEW, full-time jobs in the Lehigh Valley but directly benefit 4,300 dairy farmers in our rural… pic.twitter.com/FuWrxNSYxg

— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) September 2, 2026

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding called the deal “the biggest change for our dairy industry in a generation.” For a health reader, the farm math is the supply behind the label: three billion pounds a year is how you stock national high-protein milk without raiding yogurt vats.

Keurig Dr Pepper Cashes Out and Keeps the Routes

The factory sale is the smaller check. Keurig Dr Pepper will sell its full equity stake in Chobani for $800 million and the Allentown plant and warehouse for about $125 million, or $925 million in pre-tax proceeds. An 8-K filed with the sale splits that $800 million into $400 million cash at close and a $400 million promissory note from Chobani due December 26, 2026.

Keurig Dr Pepper’s 2025 annual report put the holding at 5.9 percent. The stake was never a straight yogurt investment. In July 2023 Keurig Dr Pepper took a minority share in La Colombe, the Philadelphia coffee roaster. When Chobani bought La Colombe later that year, that holding rolled into Chobani paper.

HOW THE STAKE AND THE PLANT CHANGED HANDS

1. July 2023: Keurig Dr Pepper takes a minority stake in La Colombe and becomes a distributor for the brand.
2. December 2023: Chobani buys La Colombe; Keurig Dr Pepper swaps the coffee shares for a minority interest in Chobani.
3. August 28, 2026: Mott’s LLP, a Keurig Dr Pepper unit, and FHU US Holdings (Chobani) sign the redemption and plant-sale papers.
4. September 1, 2026: Both companies announce the $925 million package and the $1.2 billion Allentown build-out.
5. Third quarter of 2026: The deals are expected to close, subject to ordinary closing conditions.
6. December 26, 2026: The $400 million Chobani note comes due.
7. 2027: Chobani production is expected to start on the high-protein milk lines.

Tim Cofer, chief executive of Keurig Dr Pepper, said the deals “enhance our financial flexibility, strengthen the efficiency of our manufacturing network and support the expansion of our important distribution partnership with Chobani.” The company said net proceeds will go to cut debt as it lines up two future businesses, Beverage Co. and Global Coffee Co., after agreeing in 2025 to buy JDE Peet’s for €15.7 billion ($18.36 billion).

The commercial tie does not end. Keurig Dr Pepper will keep distributing La Colombe ready-to-drink lattes and other Chobani-owned drinks on its direct store delivery routes, including future ready-to-drink launches. The long-term license to make and sell La Colombe K-Cup pods in the United States and Canada stays in place. Delivery, customer service, and other corporate staff at Allentown stay with Keurig Dr Pepper; plant and warehouse workers get Chobani offers.

That is the quieter half of the bet. Chobani is buying back its own equity, some of it on a note due before year-end, and paying $125 million for a plant it still has to rebuild. Keurig Dr Pepper is taking cash for a 5.9 percent slice and a factory that did not fit the coming split, while holding onto the routes that will carry the new protein drinks if they work.

A 2027 Shelf Date on a Five-Year Bet

Nothing in the Allentown plan puts a new Chobani milk on a grocery shelf in 2026. Production starts in 2027, and the $1.2 billion spends out across five years, which means the 10 lines, the 900 jobs, and the three billion pounds of milk all arrive in stages.

Allentown is not a one-off. Chobani is also putting money into a new dairy plant in Rome, New York; a larger Twin Falls, Idaho, site; upgrades at its original New Berlin, New York, plant; and more capacity at Norton Shores, Michigan, where La Colombe drinks are made. Together those projects are the “more than $4 billion” U.S. manufacturing map the company cited on September 1.

THE OTHER PLANTS IN THE SAME BUILD-OUT

• Rome, New York: A new dairy processing plant, extending the Upstate network where Chobani began.
• Twin Falls, Idaho: An expansion of an existing manufacturing site.
• New Berlin, New York: Improvements at the original Chobani plant.
• Norton Shores, Michigan: More room for La Colombe beverages, which Keurig Dr Pepper will still put on trucks.

Until 2027, the protein aisle stays in other people’s bottles. Chobani’s wager is that a 1.5 million-square-foot campus, 10 lines, and a third of Pennsylvania’s milk can still find room beside the high-protein milks already on sale, and that Keurig Dr Pepper’s routes will be there when the first multi-serve carton is ready.