Nestlé Purina launches largest US pet food factory in Ohio amid rising demand

Nestlé Purina has unveiled a $550 million state-of-the-art pet food factory in Batavia, Ohio, marking its largest US investment in over 50 years as demand for pet products continues to grow resiliently.

Nestlé Purina has opened a $550 million pet food factory in Batavia, Ohio, its first greenfield plant in more than 50 years and the company’s largest investment in a Purina manufacturing site to date. The 1.3 million-square-foot facility, about 30 miles east of Cincinnati, is already making Purina Pro Plan, Purina ONE and Dog Chow.

Purina said the site is employing more than 430 people, with headcount expected to rise above 500 once the plant is fully operational. The company says the factory is designed to feed about 8 million pets a year, underscoring the scale of demand it sees in a category that remains resilient even as households remain price-sensitive.

The opening also fits a broader industrial pattern: manufacturers are placing more capacity closer to major consumer markets and investing in automation to protect quality, output and supply-chain flexibility. Purina has said the Ohio site is its most advanced US facility, with digital manufacturing systems and automated storage and retrieval technology.

The Batavia plant is Purina’s 24th factory in the US and follows recent capacity expansion in Brazil and Italy, where Nestlé has also committed large sums to pet food production. Together, the projects suggest the group is betting that pet ownership, and the spending that goes with it, will keep supporting long-term capital investment.