ByHeart awarded $1.75M in grant funding through Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program

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Pennsylvania baby formula manufacturer ByHeart was awarded $1.75 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant funding to improve a Reading-based facility, state Sen. Judy Schwank (D-11th district) announced Monday.

ByHeart’s Project Lexington will establish the company as a fully integrated baby formula manufacturer, one of a handful across the country. The grant funding will pay for the construction of a canning line and dry blend area the ByHeart facility located at 61 Vanguard Drive in Exeter Township. The improvements are the last piece of the supply chain puzzled at ByHeart’s manufacturing plant, ensuring the final canned product is released from Pennsylvania.

“As a next-generation baby nutrition company, ByHeart has chosen the Commonwealth as home to our facility and epicenter of our production,” a statement issued from ByHeart said. “We have since seen extraordinary support from both Sen. Schwank and Gov. (Tom) 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.”

Officials estimate the project will give Pennsylvania dairy farmers access to a $70 billion global market, and that the plant improvements will create an additional 50 jobs, while supporting other businesses in the manufacturing and pharmaceutical sector.

“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.”