Lakeside Foods, Inc. broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot addition to its Manitowoc, Wis., headquarters and frozen packaging facility, which was initially announced earlier this year. The project is part of a strategic growth plan that began with acquisitions earlier this year of Riverside Foods and Good Eats Co., Fayetteville, Ark., to broaden and diversify the company’s product portfolio.

The $40 million project will expand the facility’s frozen warehouse and refrigerated packaging space to meet custom packaging needs, increase capacity and enable product innovation in the frozen foods category. The project includes redesigning processing operations to meet high food safety standards and installing new automated packaging equipment.

“The existing facility packages more than 100 million pounds of canned and frozen vegetables per year for more than 100 private -label customers and operates seven days a week to keep up with current demand,” says Joe Yanda, senior vice president of operations. “The expanded space and upgraded equipment will allow us to increase frozen food offerings and leverage new business opportunities.”