Villa Dolce Artisan Desserts announced the grand opening of its new manufacturing facility in Glendale, Ariz. Built on eight acres, the 76,000 square foot facility will feature 18,000 square feet of cold storage with room for future expansion.

Custom built from the ground up over an 18-month period, the new facility showcases four gelato lines that can create over one million 3-gallon tubs, 15.6 million pints and 26 million ice cream sandwiches per year.

In addition, the cold storage area holds approximately 1,700 palettes or half a million gallons of gelato. As the largest national wholesale gelato brand with over 200 distributors nationwide, offering cold storage helps ensure uncompromised quality to its co-packing customers.

"Mastering the perfect Italian gelato meant becoming proficient in the techniques I learned in Rome, as well as importing the best Italian equipment to create a truly authentic product," said Monte Marcaccini, founder and CEO of Villa Dolce. "But like many manufacturers of frozen desserts, there are additional challenges we must meet in order to maintain product integrity – and that's why we expanded and created this new facility."

 A grand opening celebration was hosted by Villa Dolce on Oct. 14, which included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a proclamation from the Mayor of Glendale, Jerry Weier, declaring October 14th to be "Villa Dolce Gelato Day" in the city of Glendale.

 As part of Villa Dolce's dedication to elevating the dessert experience, the company is expanding its range to offer artisan desserts.