Sen. Judy Schwank (D-11th District) announced Monday that ByHeart was awarded $1.75 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant funding for improvements to a Reading-based facility.
ByHeart’s Project Lexington will establish the company as one of the country’s only fully integrated baby formula manufacturers.
The funding will be used to complete the construction of a canning line and dry blend area at the ByHeart facility located at 61 Vanguard Drive in Exeter Township.
These improvements will secure the last piece of the supply chain in Pennsylvania at ByHeart’s manufacturing plant, making it the fourth end-to-end infant formula manufacturer in the U.S.
The funding will ensure the final canned product is released from Pennsylvania and give Pennsylvania dairy farmers access to a $70 billion global market.
The plant improvements are projected to create 50 new jobs and support countless others in the manufacturing and pharmaceutical sector as ByHeart expands production and canning.
“ByHeart’s project will have a positive impact locally by creating high-paying jobs and provide a statewide boost to Pennsylvania dairy sales,” Schwank said.
“Members of my staff and I got a chance to visit the facility this past spring and learned about ByHeart’s goals for the facility. This project has a lot of upsides, including creating an ecosystem for high-value dairy inputs like organic grass-fed whole milk, organic grass-fed lactose, and value-added whey proteins. For me, supporting this project’s application was a no-brainer and I’m grateful to ByHeart for seeing value in Berks County and to Gov. Wolf for funding this project.”
In a statement, ByHeart added, “As a next-generation baby nutrition company, ByHeart has chosen the Commonwealth as home to our facility and epicenter of our production. We have since seen extraordinary support from both Senator Schwank and Governor Wolf to evolve our mission. It is with great humility and honor that we accept the RACP grant in order to continue our work to create highly skilled manufacturing jobs and to progress the ecosystem of dairy innovation in Pennsylvania.”
