Lassonde upgrades its facilities to continue providing exceptional beverages across Canada and the US
With an inspirational mission to ‘create quality food and beverages that consumers love and customers appreciate, that employees are proud of, and that respect our planet,’ Lassonde is leading the way in providing a range of high-quality products throughout Canada and the US. Founded in Quebec over 100 years ago, the company serves as a large specialty food and beverage provider within the Canadian marketplace, primarily in shelf-stable and chilled juice for brands such as Oasis, Kiju, Fruite, Sunrype, Allen’s and Rougemont. Alongside fruit juice, it is also renowned for providing sports and rehydration drinks, vitamin waters and specialty food products – including its own brand of cranberry sauce.
After purchasing private label provider Clement Pappas in 2010, Lassonde increased its manufacturing footprint in the US and continued its acquisition strategy by purchasing both Old Orchard and Apple and Eve – a brand which brought the first juice box to the US over 50 years ago. Following these acquisitions, the company now has around eight plants in the US, 11 in Canada and is the major provider of apple and cranberry juice in the US. President of Lassonde’s North American Beverage Division, Amanda Burns joins Food Chain magazine to tell us more about Lassonde’s new facilities and the impact this investment is having on the business: “As Lassonde grew, a continual evolution began in our original facility in Seabrook, New Jersey evolving over time with different capabilities,” Amanda begins. “We’d retrofitted machinery and lines to fit within the square footage, ultimately creating a unique facility on three separate floors resulting in inefficiencies for manufacturing. With our distribution center beside the plant, we purchased additional land to allow us to rebuild the facility directly next to the distribution center, affording a great opportunity to create an efficient layout for our new plant. Capabilities remain the same but we’re adding even more, including single serve beverage formats, with new line layouts and more modern technology. The same amount of labor force will be required in the new facility, but we’ll also be able to produce 40 percent more and it will help significantly in driving efficiencies and improving food quality. We have begun to see the formation of the plant with walls being installed and looking forward to closing up the facility with roofing and a floor in May. We expect to install equipment in quarter four, and we’ll be running all three of the new lines by early 2027.”
Product innovation
Aside from leveraging automation technologies in the new Seabrook facility, Lassonde has also made numerous investments in its North Carolina plant, including the introduction of juice box lines and a larger aseptic single-serve PET line. Over the last three years, these investments have doubled capacity within the North Carolina site and allowed for more capabilities, primarily in single serve formats, incorporating both juice boxes and smaller bottles for teas, lemonade and juices. Investing in research and development (R&D) is also key for Lassonde when it comes to innovation, as Amanda explains: “With new product development, we dedicate time to researching consumer insights and determining how we can leverage our current capabilities to extend into new categories and needs for our consumers. We’ve brought new products to the marketplace for private labels including rehydration, comprising of different salt and sodium levels for enhanced hydration. Moving forward, we’re looking at opportunities with functional beverages and making sure that the juice or beverage is bringing consumers the added benefits they want and need, whether it be fiber or protein, alongside vitamins. Hydration and function are the main focuses for us presently, as we start bringing new products to the marketplace.”
The new Seabrook plant also offers more opportunities for the company to minimize its environmental footprint, not only by reducing water usage in its processes but also by investing in fuel cell technology. “Fuel cell technology allows us to invest in on site, distributed generation leveraging natural gas to generate on-site electricity,” Amanda elaborates. “The technology will improve overall energy efficiency, reliability, and emissions. Further regarding sustainability, we’re committed to recyclable packaging, whether it be in our corrugated cases or recyclable content within our plastic bottles. Leveraging cartons made from paperboard, which comes from renewable wood fiber also supports our recyclability and renewable work. We continue to support renewables, and we’ve been able to bring in new investments to support juice boxes in our North Carolina facility.”
Consumer driven
Following a tremendous degree of success in 2025, Lassonde’s growth plans look set to continue this year. “Apple and Eve has continued to gain national distribution with both reduced sugar juice boxes, as well as apple and orange juice in the new PET format,” highlights Amanda. “We’re highly excited about the new distribution, and we’ll be continuing to support that with various marketing campaigns. From a private label perspective, we’ll keep acquiring new customers and grow with our current customer base, whether it’s with new items or increased distribution – that level of customer support is a big focus for us in 2026, alongside ensuring their labels have the relevant products for consumers. We’ve produced zero sugar juices for customers in recent times, but we’ve also been discussing bringing tea and functional juices into their range too.
“Our five-year plan is to remain as a beverage solutions provider while finding opportunities to stay relevant and reinvent ourselves within the industry, both with our own brands and with private labels. We conduct consumer research to discover what our consumers are drinking and what they’d like to see on the shelves, before looking at how we can bring them a relevant product with our current brands – or even how we can create a different brand that resonates with them. While keeping sustainability at the forefront with our bottles, we will continue to focus on bringing some exceptionally relevant liquids to the marketplace, both for our brands and private labels.”