Ya Ya Foods Owner Gets State Funding to Build $56M Plant-Based Milk Facility in Michigan
The state of Michigan has approved a grant for Fenton Food and Beverage, a new company by the owner of Ya Ya Foods, to build a $56.2M plant-based milk factory.
Michigan will be home to North America’s first manufacturing facility to use a new technology for producing plant-based milk.
The state’s Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) board has awarded a grant to Fenton Food and Beverage, which will invest $56.2M in an industrial site producing components for milk alternatives.
Fenton Food is owned by Yahya Abbas, the founder and CEO of Ya Ya Foods Corp, a Canadian company that has been manufacturing food and beverages for over three decades. Ya Ya Foods is the second-largest producer of plant-based milk in the US, and co-manufactures products for Swedish oat milk giant Oatly.
Michigan’s performance-based grant amounts to $960,000, contingent on Fenton Food fulfilling its promise to create at least 96 new jobs. The MSF board has also approved a five-year tax exemption totalling $168,000 for the company.
The new factory, whose location is yet to be finalised, will leverage a technology that uses water to extract milk directly from nuts, instead of producing plant-based milk from a paste.
Fenton Food and Beverage eyes facility spanning up to 100,000 sq ft
Ya Ya Foods is a co-packing business with over 2,500 employees, manufacturing everything from still juice beverages, broths, and low- and high-acid beverages to liquid foods, dairy products and plant-based milk.
The company is headquartered at an 800,000 sq ft facility in Toronto. In 2023, it acquired two of Oatly’s plants in Utah and Texas as part of a hybrid manufacturing partnership, with the oat milk maker producing its proprietary oat base and transferring it to Ya Ya Foods to be co-packed into Oatly products.
While Abbas owns both Ya Ya Foods and Fenton Food, the manufacturing operations of the two companies remain independent. That said, the primary ingredient being produced at the latter’s plant is expected to be incorporated into some Ya Ya Foods products.
According to local media, Fenton Food is looking to purchase a production facility spanning 75,000-100,000 sq ft, and hire operators, team leaders, mechanics, engineers, and warehouse workers.
“They’re going to be working on almond milk,” Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance, told WNEM-TV. “But they’ll also be able to do short run other beverages. So, any entrepreneur or company that has a new product that they want tested in the market. They can run it through this facility as well.”
The grant was one of three doled out by the MSF this week, which will result in the creation of 650 new jobs and $97M in capital investment (a majority of which comes from Fenton Food).
“Michigan is on the move and open for business, competing for and winning big projects in industries like agribusiness and advanced manufacturing,” said Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s governor.
Why Michigan won the plant-based milk project
Michigan was among six states in the Midwest and Southeast vying to win the project, and officials cited “the availability of a productive labour force, a suitable building, and acceptable distribution channels” as the significant drivers of Fenton Food’s decision to choose the state.
Connectivity to cities across the world through Detroit Metro Airport was another key factor. The city of Fenton is now supporting the project by investing in infrastructure upgrades at a business park.
“Michigan stood out early in our site selection process, and Fenton offered the right combination of access, workforce, and partnership,” said Abbas. “We’re excited to move forward and build a strong, long-term operation here.”
The announcement comes amid broader struggles for the plant-based milk category in the US. According to SPINS data crunched by the Good Food Institute, retail sales of non-dairy milk fell by 2% to $2.7B in 2025, despite remaining the largest segment within the plant-based sector.
That said, formats like soy and coconut milk enjoyed a strong 2025, with sales up by 4% and 27%, respectively. And outside milk, other non-dairy products registered growth, including creamers (+2%) and yoghurts (+7%).
However, earlier this month, Danone announced it will close its 25-year-old plant-based dairy facility in New Jersey, which produced products for its Silk and So Delicious Dairy-Free brands, affecting 114 jobs. Elsewhere, though, Oatly invested $16M into a facility in Sweden to expand capacity by over 33% and meet the accelerating demand for its products.