CRESTON, IOWA, US — Benson Hill will invest $28 million to expand in Creston, Iowa. The expansion will include the addition of a 15,000-square-foot building and the purchase of equipment to create an extrusion facility to spur product innovation and increase manufacturing scale. The resulting high-protein soy ingredients will be marketed to consumer-packaged goods companies.

The expansion will take place at the company’s Creston facility, which Benson Hill acquired in January 2022 as part of its acquisition of ZFS Creston, LLC. At the time of the acquisition, Benson Hill said the purchase fulfilled the final step in its ability to convert its proprietary soybeans into value-added soy protein ingredients for the underserved human and pet food categories.

The company said the exploding demand for soy-based protein ingredients is outpacing supply, suggesting the need to build additional concentrate and isolate processing facilities. This traditional approach would take massive investment, years to build and perpetuate a commodity-based, asset-heavy, siloed approach to food production.

The Creston operation is equipped to produce soy meal and oil, as well as food-grade soy white flake, flour, and grits, which can be marketed as ingredients or used as raw material for further production of concentrates, isolates and textured protein products.

The new project is expected to create 11 jobs. Benson Hill has been awarded tax benefits through the High Quality Jobs program, which is funded by the Iowa Economic Development Authority.