Dreyer's Gets Started on $180M Expansion

LAUREL, MD-Ultimately, there will be even more ice cream to go around now that Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Holdings Inc. has broken ground on the expansion of its Laurel Operations Center. An investment of $180 million will fund the evolution of the existing 100,000-sf facility into a 700,000-sf production and warehouse center. Along with the additional space will come about 300 new jobs to enhance the existing staff of 220 employees.Dreyer’s Laurel home sits off Interstate 95 on Whiskey Bottom Drive and is the easternmost facility of the company’s seven total manufacturing and distribution centers. “It is critical to the success of our Edy’s, Nestle and Haagen-Dazs brands that we have a stellar manufacturing and distribution center on the East Coast,” says Dreyer’s chairman and CEO T. Gary Rogers. “Our Laurel facility in Howard County is in a great location to draw talent from the surrounding area. It’s also well positioned to support our growth and meet consumer demand.”

When all is said and done, the site will feature a new 200,000-sf, state-of-the-art ice cream warehouse, as well as additional space to accommodate the increase in production of its current six lines of products to 18 lines. There will also be enough land to contain further expansion in the future. Upon its completion, the Laurel Operations Center will be the largest ice cream manufacturing facility in the world, beating out Dreyer’s Bakersfield, CA facility, which is also currently under development and will total just under 700,000 sf.