Walmart on Wednesday celebrated the grand opening of its third owned-and-operated milk processing facility in Robinson, Texas.
The new facility will create more than 400 new jobs and strengthen Walmart’s end-to-end milk supply chain, the retailer said. The more than 300,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility represents an investment of more than $350 million.
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The Robinson facility will process and bottle a variety of milk options for Walmart’s Great Value and Sam’s Club Member’s Mark brands. The company said that the milk is sourced from local dairy farmers.
The new operation will supply more than 650 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs across the South Central U.S.
The milestone follows the company’s first milk processing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and its second in Valdosta, Georgia, which opened last year. Walmart began moving milk production in-house in 2018, when the company severed ties with Dean Foods, which, combined with a decline in U.S. milk consumption, forced it to shutter multiple plants and essentially bankrupt the company.
Dean Foods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2019 and sold most of its assets to Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) in May 2020.
Walmart also has two case-ready beef facilities in Thomasville, Georgia, and Olathe, Kansas. The company has pledged to invest $350 billion in products made, grown, or assembled in the U.S. by 2031; in fiscal 2025, officials said more than two‑thirds of Walmart U.S.’s total product spend was on items made, grown or assembled domestically.
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