Düsseldorf, Germany-headquartered GEA is moving ahead with the expansion of its Janesville, Wisconsin, USA facility, strengthening local production and technology capabilities for food, beverage and nutrition customers in North America. Scheduled to become fully operational in early 2028, the new building will add around 70,000 square feet of office, manufacturing, research and industrial space, representing an investment of about US $25 million in construction, machinery and equipment.
The new space brings GEA’s manufacturing, assembly and application teams closer together at Janesville. For clients, this means direct access to experts on site, shorter turnaround between a test result and a production decision, and less time lost moving a process from the lab to the plant floor.
The new infrastructure will focus on solutions from GEA’s Nutrition Plant Engineering portfolio, with drying technologies among the core capabilities. It will also support customer and internal training as well as application-related testing activities.
“Food and beverage producers in North America are looking for partners who can combine process expertise, practical testing and reliable project execution close to their markets,” said Klaus Stojentin, chief executive officer of GEA’s Nutrition Plant Engineering Division and member of the GEA executive board. “Expanding our Janesville campus is a direct response to that. It builds real capability in a region that matters strategically to both our customers and to GEA.”
Building on Existing Capabilities
GEA’s Janesville operation already combines several operational and technology functions. In 2024, the company opened a production, repair, logistics and training facility at the site for equipment such as separators, decanters, valves and pumps. A year later it added a New Food Application & Technology Center, providing food producers access to pilot-scale testing for precision fermentation, cell cultivation and plant-based applications. The planned expansion builds on this foundation.
