ByHeart Acquires Additional Domestic Infant Formula Manufacturing Facility Tripling its Supply Capacity and Continuing to Fortify Formula Production in the U.S.

News provided by

Jan 25, 2023, 06:00 ET

ByHeart is positioned to reliably and safely meet the needs of families across the country and fully reopen to customers in Q2 of 2023 with an eye toward retail expansion this year

The acquisition and pending FDA registration of this manufacturing facility, together with ByHeart's existing facilities, will provide the company with sufficient manufacturing capacity to achieve its goal of feeding 500,000 babies annually

With ownership of three manufacturing facilities across the U.S., ByHeart will further expand the company's full control and oversight of its production process

NEW YORK, Jan. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, ByHeart announces the acquisition of an additional manufacturing facility that will enable the next-generation baby nutrition company to scale production capacity of its breakthrough infant formula and increase domestic infant formula supply. Recognizing that the formula industry, which historically has been dominated by three players who control 90% of the market, was in need of change, ByHeart founders Ron Belldegrun and Mia Funt began working with DairiConcepts' FDA-registered facility in Allerton, Iowa, in 2018 to proactively build redundancy into their production ecosystem.

ByHeart is acquiring the Allerton facility from DairiConcepts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the nation's largest dairy cooperative. ByHeart will be maintaining the facility's workforce and extending its best-in-class benefits to all existing employees. This announcement follows ByHeart's recent acquisition of Cascadia Nutrition, an FDA-registered packaging and blending facility in Portland, OR. Together, these facilities and the company's manufacturing plant in Reading, PA, will provide ByHeart with sufficient manufacturing capacity to achieve its goal of feeding an estimated 500,000 infants each year.

"Infant formula is a fundamental category and often the sole source of nutrition for babies. Since our launch, we've seen incredible demand for our product; the outpouring of positive feedback from ByHeart customers strengthened our conviction to double down on our supply chain in order to provide families with safe and reliable nourishment for their babies," says ByHeart CEO and Co-Founder Ron Belldegrun. "When we started ByHeart seven years ago, we committed to taking the longer path and building from the ground up to serve as an example for how this industry can and should evolve. By acquiring these additional facilities, we are not only providing critical product to more families, but also further strengthening the vulnerable infant formula supply chain in this country."

"Infant formula is one of the most value added dairy products in the world. We at Dairy Farmers of America are committed to producing high-quality milk and dairy ingredients in a sustainable way while building relationships that leverage the value of dairy nutrition for infant formula," says Martin Bates, president of DFA Ingredient Solutions. "We look forward to continuing to work with ByHeart, which we believe has the potential to unlock significant opportunity for our 11,500 family farmers across the country."

ByHeart's acquisition of an additional production facility dedicated to infant formula will yield a crucial incremental supply of infant formula in the US and ultimately contribute to safeguarding the country from future shortages. As the only infant formula newcomer able to use its clinical trials and manufacturing expertise to enhance the capabilities of existing facilities in the US, ByHeart is continuing to advance 21st-century nutrition to ensure access to a higher quality formula for more families.

When Belldegrun and Funt founded ByHeart in 2016, they set out to develop an infant formula that incorporated the advancements in modern nutrition science and breast milk research that had previously outpaced product innovation in this space. Building the company from scratch allowed ByHeart to personally source each ingredient, acquire their manufacturing and R&D, and apply rigorous quality standards to every touchpoint in the production process. This revolutionary approach yielded the first clinically proven, easy-to-digest infant formula with no corn syrup, maltodextrin, soy, or palm oil. ByHeart's patented protein blend gets closest to breast milk to drive "all in one" functional benefits for a baby. Results from ByHeart's breakthrough national clinical study have been published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. Investing in end-to-end US manufacturing and owning three domestic facilities should allow ByHeart to provide formula to more families and strengthen the supply of this vital first food.

About ByHeart

Founded in 2016 and based in New York City with manufacturing facilities across three states, ByHeart is a next-generation baby nutrition company dedicated to empowering parents with choices for a better feeding future. ByHeart is the first new infant formula manufacturer to be registered with the FDA in over 15 years, and its next-generation, easy-to-digest infant formula is defined by nutritional excellence and a farm-to-formula verified™ quality program. For more information on ByHeart, visit https://byheart.com.

About Dairy Farmers of America

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is a national, farmer-owned dairy cooperative focusing on quality, innovation and the future of family dairies. While supporting and serving more than 11,500 family farm-owners, DFA manufactures nearly every form, function and flavor of nutritional dairy products, including fluid milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, dairy ingredients and more that connect our Cooperative's family farms to family tables with regional brands such as Alta Dena® Dairy, Meadow Gold® Dairy, Friendly®'s, Borden® Cheese, Plugrá® Premium Butter and Kemps® to name a few. On a global scale, we work with some of the world's leading food companies to develop ingredients that deliver the greatest source of nutrition to consumers around the world, while staying committed to social responsibility and ethical farming. For more information, please visit dfamilk.com.

SOURCE ByHeart