Walmart plans to open third milk facility in 2026
Walmart is expanding infrastructure to meet growing consumer milk demand.
The discounter will open its third owned and operated milk processing facility in Robinson, Texas, with a target opening in 2026. The new facility is expected to create nearly 400 new jobs in the Robinson area.
The facility will process and bottle a variety of milk options, including gallon, half-gallon, gallon, whole, 2%, 1%, skim and 1% chocolate milk for Walmart’s Great Value and Sam’s Club’s Member’s Mark brands.
The products from the facility will serve more than 750 Walmart and Sam’s Clubs stores throughout the Southern U.S., including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and parts of Arkansas and Mississippi.
"We’re excited to be able to provide Texas and its surrounding states with high-quality milk sourced primarily from Texas dairy farmers," said Bruce Heckman, VP of manufacturing at Walmart. "This new facility continues our commitment to building a more resilient and transparent supply chain and ensuring our customers’ needs are met for this everyday staple."
Walmart has pledged $350 billion over a decade to invest in products made, sourced, grown or assembled here in the U.S.
Walmart bulks up internal food supply chain
The planned Texas milk facility is Walmart’s latest effort to create in-house capability for manufacturing and distributing food products. The company opened its first milk processing plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. in 2018 and also plans to open a milk facility in Valdosta, Ga.
In addition, Walmart has released plans for opening its first owned and operated case-ready beef facility in 2025. The retailer says the new facility in Olathe, Kan. will offer greater visibility into its supply chain, bolstering its capacity to fulfill demand for quality beef.
Once opened, Walmart’s new facility in Kansas will package and distribute a selection of Angus cuts from Sustainable Beef LLC in North Platte, Neb., to serve its stores across the Midwest. The retailer made a minority investment in Sustainable Beef, a rancher-owned company based in North Platte, Neb., in 2022.
Walmart’s investment is intended to help Sustainable Beef open a beef processing facility in North Platte, Neb. The facility is expected to break ground in September 2023 and open by late 2024, creating more than 800 new jobs.
Walmart has been powering up its proprietary, end-to-end Angus beef supply chain during the past several years. In June 2021, the discount giant introduced McClaren Farms beef in nearly 500 stores across five Southeastern states - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.
McClaren Farms was Walmart’s first official release from its end-to-end Angus beef supply chain program it initiated in 2019.
In addition, Walmart made a minority investment in Plenty, an indoor vertical farming company, as part of a $400 million Series E funding round in 2022. As part of a long-term commercial agreement, Walmart will source Plenty’s leafy greens for its 250 California stores from Plenty’s Compton (Calif.) farm.
Based in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart Inc. operates more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries.