(Radio Iowa) – The co-founder of the company operating a baby formula factory in southern Iowa says there’s an opportunity for significant growth in production capacity and the workforce at the plant in Allerton. Ron Belldegrun is C-E-O of ByHeart, which bought the DairiConcepts plant in Allerton after using the facility in 2019 during trials of its new recipe for baby formula.

Baby formula recalls and subsequent shortages in 2022 highlighted the fact that three companies controlled 90 percent of the market. ByHeart’s production of baby formula began in March of 2022. It bought the Allerton plant in 2023.

ByHeart uses whole milk from grass-fed cows and other ingredients in the powder that’s currently produced in Allerton, but canned and packaged at a facility in Pennsylvania. Belldegrun says ByHeart invested very heavily in the Allerton plant to make it a state of the art baby formula factory and there are now 100 people employed at the facility.

ByHeart, which owns plants in Pennsylvania and Oregon as well, currently produces enough formula to feed half a million babies a year. Belldegrun says the company has a big vision for what’s next in Allerton.

ByHeart engineers are drawing up plans to add packaging and canning to the Allerton plant and Belldegrun says he’s had productive discussions with government officials, university researchers, farmers and other ingredient suppliers about creating what he describes as an ecosystem around the southern Iowa facility.