Unilever North America, Rotterdam, N.J., announced plans to expand its Covington, Tenn., facility.

Plans include facility and site improvements for an 11,000-square-foot engine room expansion and a 90,000-square-foot parking lot expansion resulting in an investment of $108.7 million and the addition of 428 new full-time positions over a 4-year period. Upon completion of the project, Unilever expects to have a workforce of nearly 1,000 employees in Covington. Unilever’s expansion of its Covington facility optimizes the positive economic, environmental and social benefits of the facility’s location to sustainably produce ice cream and frozen novelty items.

“Investing in sustainable manufacturing is an important part of Unilever’s strategy of investing back for growth in America,” says Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever. “Through the expansion and upgrade in Covington, we are creating a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, enabling Unilever to sustainably and responsibly grow our U.S. ice cream business. We are excited about what this investment means for both the local community and for Unilever.”

Unilever’s Covington facility specializes in the production of ice cream and frozen novelty items for brands such as Breyers, Fruttare, Good Humor, Klondike and Popsicle. In addition to facility and parking lot improvements, the expansion will allow increased production capacity of the existing company-owned ice cream novelty and frozen dessert factory and the purchase of new machinery and equipment for additional production lines.