BelGioioso Cheese, a Wisconsin-based cheese maker, recently announced its plans to invest more than $23 million to upgrade and expand its facilities in Glenville and Campbell, N.Y. According to the company, this expansion will add at least 30 jobs and increase the company’s use of New York-sourced milk by about 100 million lb. each year.
“This decision by BelGioioso to further expand its operations upstate marks yet another chapter in New York’s agricultural success story,” says Governor Kathy Hochul, noting the role dairy farms play in the state’s economy. “New York’s dairy industry serves as a crucial economic engine for our state, and we are grateful to this successful company for its continued commitment to these communities, and to area dairy farmers, who always work hard to help position our state as one of the nation’s top dairy producers.”
BelGioioso, founded in 1979, currently operates 11 plants and produces more than 30 types of Italian cheeses for both retail and food service markets. The company has steadily grown its presence in New York over the past decade, supported by increasing consumer demand for specialty and fresh mozzarella products. Its New York facilities play a key role in that growth, serving as major hubs for production and distribution across the northeast.
The Glenville site has seen continued development in recent years, including a 96,000-sq.-ft. plant completed in 2020 and a distribution center added in 2022. The latest investment will build on that footprint by expanding processing capacity and updating equipment to support new production needs.
In Campbell, the company is updating the former Polly-O plant, which was built in 1938 and acquired by BelGioioso in 2021. The work includes infrastructure improvements, modernizing aging systems and adding new product lines to support future growth. Upgrades at both locations are underway and expected to be finished by late 2027.
New York State agriculture commissioner Richard A. Ball says the expansion will have a direct benefit for dairy farmers supplying the facilities.
“We’re thrilled that BelGioioso has decided to expand their roots here in New York State, growing their operations both in the Mohawk Valley and in the Southern Tier,” Ball says. “This is great news for New York’s dairy farmers, who will be supplying milk to this state-of-the-art processing facility.”
New York has seen several large dairy-sector investments in recent years, including major projects from fairlife, Agri-Mark, and Chobani. Nearly 300 dairy processing plants operate across the state, supported by roughly 3,000 dairy farms that produce more than 16 billion pounds of milk annually.
Hochul has prioritized dairy infrastructure and farm-level modernization in recent budgets, including $34 million over two years for on-farm storage and efficiency upgrades and nearly $82 million for environmental stewardship programs. In June, the state awarded $21.6 million to 103 farms for equipment and infrastructure improvements, with another funding round set for fiscal year 2026.
New York is the nation’s fifth-largest dairy state. Dairy remains the state’s largest agricultural sector, accounting for nearly half of all agricultural receipts.
