Actus Nutrition, the Eden Prairie-based protein processor formerly known as Milk Specialties, has muscled its way to $2.1 billion in revenue this year on the back of a 32% jump in sales. The surge reflects booming demand for whey used in human, pet and livestock nutrition and puts the hometown ingredient maker firmly in the ranks of Minnesota's manufacturing heavyweights.
According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Actus logged $2.1 billion in revenue and 32% growth in the period covered by the paper's Minnesota Manufacturing Awards feature. The outlet noted the company's evolution from animal-feed roots into a whey processor for human foods, pet formulas and livestock feed, and it placed Actus among the Food and Beverage Manufacturers of the Year in this year's awards lineup.
From Whey To World Markets
As Actus Nutrition describes it, the company now operates 15 facilities, employs roughly 1,400 people and serves 47 countries, a global footprint it credits for recent revenue gains. Actus says it produces whey proteins, milk proteins, caseins and specialty formulations that end up in sports nutrition products, functional foods and animal-nutrition lines. Its Eden Prairie office still serves as corporate headquarters for a network that stretches across Wisconsin, Idaho, California and other U.S. processing locations.
Expansion Through Capacity Moves
Actus has been steadily adding bricks and steel to match that demand. In April 2025, the company announced a deal to buy a 99,000-square-foot whey processing plant in Sparta, Wis., paired with a long-term supply partnership with Foremost Farms USA. In a company statement carried on Business Wire, CEO David Lenzmeier said the Sparta facility could be folded into the Actus network "without a lot of changes," language tied to plans for investment and hiring. Moves like that help explain how a privately held ingredient supplier can rack up such rapid year-over-year gains.
Market Tailwinds
Market researchers see demand staying strong for high-protein ingredients across beverages, sports nutrition products and fortified foods, giving processors like Actus both pricing power and volume tailwinds, according to ResearchAndMarkets. Industry reports tracking whey and milk-protein segments point to multi-billion-dollar demand that has fueled new capacity and M&A activity in recent years. Local economic development officials say that when processors grow, it often translates into more manufacturing jobs and supplier work around the Upper Midwest.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's Minnesota Manufacturing Awards, which solicited nominations through July 24, shine a spotlight on companies whose expansion is reshaping the state's industrial base, and Actus's $2.1 billion year was central to that attention, per the Business Journal. For Eden Prairie, the trajectory from feedmaker to global ingredient supplier shows how private food companies are quietly enlarging local manufacturing footprints and export reach, and observers say Actus's investments are likely to mean more production hiring and supplier activity across the Upper Midwest.
