Divert Opens North Carolina Facility, Expanding its Circularity Platform in the Southeast

New Lexington facility will advance regional circularity by transforming unsold food into renewable natural gas and food-derived fertilizers

WEST CONCORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Divert, Inc., a circular infrastructure company Protecting the Value of Food^®, today announced the opening of its new Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility in Lexington, North Carolina. The new facility transforms unsold food that can no longer be donated into renewable natural gas (RNG) to help power communities and fertilizer to support regional agriculture. The facility also recovers food-bound water to run its own operations and captures data to help customers prevent future waste.

Divert’s Lexington facility is expected to service over 2,500 retail grocery locations and 20 retail distribution centers across the region by the close of 2026. Additionally, the company will responsibly process unsold food, food byproducts, and residuals from food manufacturers and other businesses across the Southeast.

“The success of Divert’s Circularity Platform is driven by our employees and rooted in our customer base” said Ryan Begin, CEO and co-founder of Divert. “The strong customer relationships we have built over the past twenty years are what allow us to invest in regional infrastructure, including our new facility here in Lexington.”

Harris Teeter is among the anchor customers served by Divert’s Lexington Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility, which will support all of the retailer’s locations.

“At Harris Teeter, our purpose is to enrich lives, one meal, one family, one associate, and one community at a time,” said Danna Robinson, Director of Corporate Affairs & Customer Relations for Harris Teeter. “We believe food serves its highest purpose when it is feeding people. When food can no longer be donated, our partnership with Divert helps us find a productive use for it, reducing waste and protecting the value of food across the communities we serve.”

In addition to Harris Teeter, the facility will also serve select locations for Publix, UNFI, and other customers across the region.

At full capacity, the Lexington facility will be capable of processing up to 120,000 tons of unsold, non-donatable food annually from food retailers, distribution centers, warehouses, and manufacturing locations. Renewable natural gas, which is injected directly into local pipeline infrastructure, is already being produced at the Divert facility from unsold food in the area. The facility will also be capable of producing Divert^® Food-Derived Fertilizers, including OMRI-listed organic options for use in organic food production. Divert’s technology also provides customers with actionable data to help prevent wasted food and increase donations before unsold food reaches the facility.

“This facility will reduce food waste and create renewable natural gas, helping our state power its future,” said Governor Josh Stein. “North Carolina is a leader in innovation and the clean energy economy, and I am pleased to welcome Divert, Inc. to be part of our thriving business and energy ecosystem.”

“North Carolina represents the fourth largest food and beverage industry in the United States and ranks eighth nationally in agricultural production,” added Begin. “This makes Lexington an ideal location for advancing circularity in our food system, and this facility will allow us to serve more businesses, keep more food out of landfills, and recover valuable resources that can be put back to productive use.”

Divert’s Lexington facility is part of the company’s vertically integrated Circularity Platform, through which Divert develops, owns, and operates regional infrastructure to prevent wasted food and recover valuable resources from food that can no longer be donated. The model combines data and technology to help customers prevent waste, facilitates edible food recovery to support local hunger relief, and transforms remaining unsold food into renewable energy, fertilizer and reclaimed water.

The Lexington facility is the latest addition to Divert’s growing national infrastructure, following the opening of its Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility in Longview, Washington, earlier this year.

Divert is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity, infrastructure and energy firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy.

About Divert

Divert is a circular infrastructure company Protecting the Value of Food^®. The company owns and operates a vertically integrated, nationwide platform of infrastructure, technologies and solutions that prevents food from being wasted. This Circularity Platform offers an end-to-end approach – Prevent, Provide, Produce™ – which prevents waste, provides purpose-built processing infrastructure, and produces renewable energy, fertilizer, and reclaimed water from diverted food materials. The company works with customers across the U.S. to reduce wasted food and positively impact people and the environment. For more information on Divert, Inc., please visit www.divertinc.com.

About Ara Partners

Founded in 2017, Ara Partners is a global private markets firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy. The firm invests in the middle market across three strategies: Private Equity, Infrastructure, and Energy. The firm scales commercially demonstrated decarbonization solutions, supports the businesses and infrastructure that enable their adoption, and reduces emissions at the source across the conventional energy value chain. Ara’s model combines investing, market and policy expertise, project execution and operational optimization, and rigorous carbon accounting to reduce emissions economically and unlock growth at an industrial scale. The firm operates from Houston, Boston, Dublin and Washington D.C., and, as of June 30, 2026, Ara Partners had approximately $10.6 billion of assets under management.

For more information about Ara Partners, please visit www.arapartners.com.