CARRINGTON, NORTH DAKOTA, US — 8th Avenue Food and Provisions, a consumer products holding company formed in October 2018 through a combination of Post Holdings’ private brands businesses, has unveiled plans for $2 million in upgrades at its Dakota Growers Pasta facility in Carrington.

Jason Jarrett, plant superintendent at Dakota Growers Pasta, said the upgrades are focused on “improving grain handling efficiency.”

“8th Avenue is making the investment in probing, grading, and weighment of truck-delivered grain with the intent to improve the processing time of those activities,” Jarrett said.

He said Dakota Growers is eying a 50% increase in truck handling capacity with this project. Currently, the Carrington facility can handle about 30 trucks a day. The goal is to try and get to the 55 to 60 trucks per day mark, he said.

“We’ll continue to receive grain via rail, but we’re really focused on truck efficiencies,” Jarrett said.

Jarrett said the engineering and design phase is complete, with construction set to begin in the spring of 2022. The company hopes to have all upgrades complete and functional by the end of July 2022, just in time for new crop grain delivery. The Carrington facility was built in 1993.

The upgrades in Carrington further a commitment by 8th Avenue to grow its pasta business, Jarrett said. The company earlier this year acquired the Ronzoni dry pasta brand and a dry pasta manufacturing facility in Winchester, Virginia, US.

“We anticipate local growers will grow more wheat acres and we want to put ourselves in the best position to procure that wheat,” he said.