HP Hood LLC, will shutter the Kemps Foods plant in Lancaster, Pa., later this year as it consolidates its east coast ice cream operations at the plant in Suffield, Conn.

The Pennsylvania facility processes ice cream, drinks and frozen desserts. Fluid processing will close in April, with ice cream manufacturing shutting down in July, Hood says. The dedicated frozen dessert plant in Suffield is undergoing an expansion that will give it an annual capacity of more than 20 million gals, and a staff of 225.

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development is providing a $2 million loan for machinery, equipment and renovations, while the town of Suffield will expand wastewater treatment to accommodate the new volume. The Kemps plant was the former headquarters of locally owned Penn Dairies, and was later acquired by Kemps' sister company, Binghamton, N.Y.-based Crowley Foods. Kemps and Crowley became part of Chelsea, Mass.-based HP Hood in 2004.