Wells expansion builds excitement – observertoday.com

Jul 26, 2025
OBSERVER Photos by Braden Carmen An expansion of Dunkirk’s Wells ice cream plant is underway. Construction is likely to continue for two more years, with a target of completion of no later than 2028.

Wells Enterprises is here to stay, and as the company moves forward in its major expansion in the city of Dunkirk, the entire culture of its workforce is as energized as ever.
David Fiore, Director of Operations at the Dunkirk production plant, said that over the past few years, not many of his colleagues believed him when he spoke of the possibilities at the Dunkirk facility. Now that the project is underway, he is upbeat for people to see his hopes and dreams for the facility over the past few years come to fruition.
“I’m excited for the people to go from what they had to what they will have. It’s just amazing to me. I’m so proud that they are going to be able to experience that,” Fiore said.
Wells Enterprises, Inc., has already invested nearly $170 million into an expansion of its facilities in the city of Dunkirk, which will eventually total roughly $450 million. Wells has a four-phase plan to construct a 350,000-square-foot facility with 11 production lines for its various ice cream products.
Wells features four major brands of ice cream products, including Blue Bunny, Blue Ribbon Classics, Halo Top, and the original Bomb Pop. A new facility will not only increase the production of those brands, but it will also allow for innovation in ways the industry has never seen before.
OBSERVER Photos by Braden Carmen An expansion of Dunkirk’s Wells ice cream plant is underway. Construction is likely to continue for two more years, with a target of completion of no later than 2028.
“This plant is built for innovation,” Fiore said. “We’re going to be going down a road over the next nine years to make extremely innovative products year after year. It’s exciting.”
Wells is owned by Ferrero, one of the world’s premium chocolate brands based in Italy. After Ferrero reached an agreement to acquire the company in December of 2022, its plans to expand in the ice cream space put Wells on the path to becoming an industry leader in producing chocolate and ice cream together. The biggest step forward on that journey will now take place in Dunkirk.
The facility expansion project in Dunkirk includes a Segregated Compound Facility for the production of Ferrero chocolate on-site, which is the first facility of its kind in the United States. The chocolate ingredients are kept in a dry facility fully separated from the presence of water. The facility mirrors that of Ferrero’s Italian chocolate production plant design.
The facility has an entire room full of tanks to store chocolate that will be infused with various products. Another part of the facility is designed as an enormous freezer to store products before they are sent across the street to the Americold storage site for distribution. Having a huge freezer on-site allows for production to continue nonstop on a steady flow without any interruptions.
The Dunkirk plant expansion was planned before Ferrero acquired Wells, but once Ferrero took over, it sped up the process. In addition to pouring gasoline on the fire in terms of the timeline, Ferrero allowed for much more innovation with the products Wells could produce.
Once Ferrero’s chocolate is produced, it can then be infused with ice cream products in a variety of ways, allowing for many different products to come from the same production facility.
The chocolate production plant will begin in August. Four production lines are set to be in operation shortly, with even more by the end of the year, including cones, pints, and cups with various styles and flavors for each product. Some of the products already launched at other production sites that will be produced in Dunkirk include Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, and 100 Grand ice cream bars.
MAKING THE CHANGE
Plans for the expansion came together in September of 2023, with demolition beginning in February of 2024. Footing was in the ground for the new facility approximately one year ago. Construction will likely continue for two more years, with the entirety of the work expected to be completed no later than 2028.
While the project is still a ways from completion, Fiore is already witnessing a difference in the culture of the plant on a daily basis.
“It’s really special to come into work, honestly, because the people are very, very excited,” Fiore said. “The amount of pride that is on the floor right now — and that will be walking into the other plant — is pretty cool.”
All four phases of the expansion will eventually result in Wells adding 270 new jobs in addition to its current workforce. The expansion also includes employee welfare spaces, such as locker rooms and new offices located in a newly constructed building, which is part of Phase 2 of the project.
While the plant has downsized in recent years to optimize production, it is still operational with over 300 employees. Several production lines are performing at a higher rate than at any time under Fiore’s leadership. There was no full stop of production at any point. Fiore said initially, it was “a gut punch” to scale back, but now he sees the decision in a much different light.
“As much as it hurt me personally and professionally that we decided to downsize, it was absolutely the right thing to do for Dunkirk, for this facility,” Fiore said. “We would not be here today. We probably would have decided to shut it down.”
Fiore said that scaling back production as the project began allowed for more of a focus on “the right behaviors that we need to have in place to be good stewards of this new equipment and this new plant.” In addition to its productivity, the plant is cleaner, safer, and the overall culture is much more positive.
WHY DUNKIRK?
While Dunkirk already hosted a sizable Wells production plant, an expansion of this magnitude still likely would have been more financially beneficial in many other areas.
Fiore said that when evaluating where a plant should be located on the east coast, if there was a list of a hundred potential locations, Dunkirk would have been last. Fiore cited the cost of raw materials, the labor pool to draw from, and the relative anonymity of the city to people outside of western New York as just a few of the reasons why building a facility that costs nearly half a billion dollars would have made sense in many other locations before getting to Dunkirk.
“From a financial standpoint … it doesn’t make the most sense to stay here,” Fiore said.
But there was one clear reason Wells chose to expand in Dunkirk: commitment.
Even at the top of its corporate logo, Wells calls itself “a family company.” In staying in Dunkirk, it proves just how much being part of a community matters to the company. Wells doubled down on its commitment to the city of Dunkirk and strengthened its roots in the city, rather than looking for the cheapest place to invest.
Fiore never doubted the commitment from Wells, but when Ferrero acquired the company, Fiore wondered what that meant for the plant as he knew it. He said, “I was nervous for us when Ferrero purchased Wells. Would Ferrero feel the same way?”
It didn’t take long for him to find an answer. “Obviously they do. They are committed to the community. They are committed to the employees,” Fiore said.
Fiore called the commitment of Wells and Ferrero to Dunkirk “admirable.” He highlighted the commitment from Wells and Ferrero to Dunkirk as the biggest key for the public to take from the entire project.
Once the company held true to its commitment to Dunkirk and built upon its strong foothold in the community, its employees followed suit as leaders in the community, as well.
“We’re trying to show people who we are. We value our people. That investment in them is coming through,” said Lesley Bartholomew, Director of External Relations at Wells Enterprises. “We invest in the community too. We’re trying to support the community in volunteering, in dollars, and whatever that may look like. We’ll continue to do that, and we’ll expand that. We’re excited to do that.”
Fiore said at community events in the past, it used to be hard to find employees willing to volunteer their time outside of work to make a difference in the area. Now, the culture shift inside the building’s walls has carried over so much that people come out in bunches, even on a dreary Sunday morning for a community cleanup day at the beach. Fiore said, “Now we have to figure out what we’re going to do with all the people that want to come help and be involved.”
BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
Last July, Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Dunkirk to announce the state is supporting the facility expansion with up to $12 million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits and a $6 million grant from Empire State Development in exchange for job creation and capital investment commitments. The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency has also taken measures to support the project in various financial ways, including the support of a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement and a sales tax exemption.
“Wells Enterprises’ commitment to our community’s prosperity is truly commendable, and we are proud to support this transformative project. This expansion goes beyond ice cream production; it represents a promising future for Dunkirk and Chautauqua County. We are grateful for Wells and the Ferrero Group’s dedication to our region, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to the CCIDA and the State of New York for their invaluable funding and support in making this project possible,” County Executive PJ Wendel said.
ABOUT WELLS
Wells Enterprises is the largest privately held ice cream manufacturer in the United States. The company was founded in 1913 by Fred H. Wells, and was run by the Wells family for generations.
Wells is responsible for more than 200 million gallons of ice cream production per year, distributed in all 50 states nationwide. The company is headquartered in Le Mars, Iowa, where it hosts two manufacturing plants. In addition to its foothold in Iowa and the facility expansion in Dunkirk, Wells also operates a manufacturing plant in Henderson, Nevada.
For more information, visit wellsenterprisesinc.com
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