Baking&Snack - September 2011 - 34

CONSTRUCTION REPORT

creation tax credits, and $45,000 in job training assistance. As part of the expansion, Joy Cone will renovate its current facility, construct an addition and convert portions of its warehouse into production, and it also plans to purchase, manufacture and install new electronic automation equipment in its warehouse. This past fall, Panera Bread Co. opened a new headquarters in Sunset Hills, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. The company spent $1.8 million on improvements to the 90,000 sq ft of leased office space, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. Also, the journal reported that the company received a 10-year 50% tax abatement that will total approximately $130,000. As part of the move, Panera vacated two other office locations in suburban St. Louis, which had approximately 49,000 sq ft combined. The bakery-café chain noted that the new office space will allow it to grow, and ▶ Shearer’s Foods added three new production lines in this recently completed expansion of its Millennium plant in Massillon, OH. The 50,000-sq-ft addition houses kettle-cooked, reduced-fat kettle-cooked and continuous potato chip lines.
SHEARER’S FOODS

it expected to add at least 100 employees over the next couple of years. New Horizon Baking Co., Norwalk, OH, received a $1 million grant last year under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Energy Program for energyefficient upgrades. Also, the company received a $25,000 Rapid Outreach Grant from the Ohio Department

of Development, which was to help offset costs associated with acquiring new equipment to support an expansion project. Allen Foods, a part of the Bimbo Bakeries USA family of companies, reportedly began production on one shift at its new $30 million, 135,000-sq-ft bakery in Topeka, KS, earlier this year. GO Topeka, an

Shearer’s Completes Phase Two at Millennium Plant
Shearer’s Foods, Brewster, OH, recently completed phase two of its Millennium facility in Massillon, OH. An additional 50,000 sq ft for processing and warehouse operations were added to the 63,000-sq-ft facility, which was completed last year. The company added three new production systems, including kettle-cooked, reduced-fat kettle-cooked and continuous potato chip lines, according to Steve Surmay, senior vice-president of co-pack operations. It also installed 13 new packaging cells all equipped with on-machine seasoning capabilities. “We still have room for two more kettles and an additional traditional potato chip line in phase two,” he noted, adding that it also has room for a tortilla chip line and an extruded line in the plant’s first phase. In phase two, Shearer’s continued many of the sustainability initiatives it had implemented during the first phase of construction, according to Scott Weyandt, the company’s director of sustainability. In fact, Shearer’s received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification for the initial phase of the project, becoming the first snack manufacturing plant to receive this designation under stricter guidelines issued in 2009 by the US Green Building Council. In addition to carrying through energy saving ideas such as waterless urinals, low-flow fixtures, skylights and computerized management of heating and cooling systems, the company also installed an advanced heat-recovery system on the fryer hood exhaust of the continuous potato chip line. It recovers more than 11 million Btus each hour from steam released from potatoes as they enter the fryer. This energy heats all of the building constructed as part of phase two as well as preheat water for the line’s potato wash box. In addition, the heat-recovery system provides heat to the process water discharged to the plant’s new anaerobic wastewater treatment plant, which Mr. Weyandt called the most sustainable method of process water pretreatment. The treatment plant uses no chemicals and wasting is done once every three years as compared with daily on aerobic treatment, he added. The company also has better optimized staffing since installing the new wastewater system, which requires only 40 hours of work per week as opposed to more than 200-plus labor-hours per week for other systems. Shearer’s also is investigating opportunities to burn methane from its wastewater treatment system to generate electricity for use at the plant, he added. BAKING & SNACK / September 2011 www.bakingbusiness.com

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Baking&Snack - September 2011

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