DYERSVILLE, IOWA, US — Ancient Brands Milling earlier this month held a groundbreaking ceremony at its new manufacturing plant in Dyersville. In May, the company unveiled plans to invest $26.5 million to relocate and expand its puffed grains capacity in Dyersville. Ancient Brands is a manufacturer of organic and non-GMO puffed grains for use in cereal, granola, energy bars and plant-based alternatives.

As part of the investment, Ancient Brands plans to build a new 92,000-square-foot plant in Dyersville to replace the facility it acquired in the city from The Andersons, Inc. back in September 2020. The Andersons had acquired the facility in 2018 as part of its acquisition of Nu-World Foods from Tella Atlantic Holdings.

“Current expansion is really driven by extremely high demand for what we are currently doing, which is gluten-free, allergen-free, organic and non-GMO puffed grains,” Patrick Hemminger, president of Ancient Brands, told World Grain in May. “And so we are at or near capacity on capacity-constricted equipment. The equipment we have now does not provide the ability for us to upgrade or to increase capacity utilization. So that really caused us to take a strong look at ways we could increase that capacity and the availability of our high-quality ingredients and capabilities, and we really took a strong look at that at the end of Q4 of 2021.”

Equipment is expected to arrive in the fourth quarter with setup taking place shortly after, which puts the company on pace for startup in the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2023, Hemminger said. He added that Ancient Brands initially plans to run the current facility in parallel with the new facility to ensure a smooth transition of operations.