Meat + Poultry - September 2004 - 35

Planning

Frick says the new facility is also designed to prevent cross contamination, with no horizontal pipes or conduit so as to prevent condensation from dripping. Additionally, each room is equipped with a
utility service area to facilitate maintenance of vacuum pumps and
piping without hindering production. Other amenities include:
* Forty-foot-high rooms;
* Ten-foot-high, stainless steel monorail system capable of
holding up to 2 million pounds of meat;
* Six new ovens; and
* New refrigeration systems
Part of Frick's wish list, when the new facility was in the formative
stages was to maximize energy dollars. "We went to great lengths
to make this as energy efficient as possible," he says. To that end,
variable speed motors and compressors are being installed and a
system of three blast chillers is computer controlled and monitored
for correct velocity and temperature. The plant's ready-to-eat area
is also designed to have positive airflow and the chilled areas are
zoned and feature their own separate drains.
Besides being able to increase the capacity of the plant by up to
300 percent, Frick says the company will be able to double its workforce, but shouldn't need to in the near future. Throughout the process, Frick says perhaps the most valuable investment he made was
in retaining a construction consultant, who handles all the details of
seeing the project through. Because many of them are retired architects, consultants act as the eyes and ears of the owner at project
sites. Frick says the consultant has also been valuable in detecting
red flags during the building process and meets frequently with him
to discuss topics like staying on budget and within deadline.
As for what will become of the old Frick's plant, it's anyone's guess.
"It's a good old plant, but I can't imagine we would need it after having just increased our capacity by 300 percent at the new one," he
says. For now, it will sit idle. "I know one thing I don't want to do is sell
it to a competitor."
Accommodating growth
Executives with Hatfield Quality Meats, Hatfield, Pa., recently

MEAT&POULTRY

spent as much renovating its main plant as some companies spend
on constructing a new plant. This past year, the company expanded
its fresh operations by about 70,000 square feet and remodeled its
value-added fresh pork area.
The $39-million project included the addition of carcass cooling
capacity and some basement space to accommodate future growth.
Investments were also made in the plant's infrastructure, including
upgraded refrigeration systems and air make-up equipment. "This
has helped to increase our fresh pork capacity by as much as 30
percent," says Dave Kolesky, senior vice president of administration
for Hatfield. He says the company has made minor tweaks to its main
plant and its smaller operations in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts
over the years, but nowhere near the most recent investment. "We
haven't done anything of this magnitude," he says. "This is a significant investment."
Other companies are starting with greenfield projects and have
hundreds of millions at stake. Triumph Foods, a producer-owned, integrated pork producing and processing company is constructing a
620,000-square-foot, $135-million processing plant and headquarters facility in St. Joseph, Mo. Grading of the worksite is currently being finished and the structure is expecting to begin going up early this
fall. Among the 40-member ownership group is: Christensen Farms,
The Hanor Company, TriOak Foods, New Fashion Pork, Eichelberger
Farms and Allied Producers Cooperative.
The Triumph plant and the overall business structure, officials say, is
modeled after Seaboard Farms, Shawnee Mission, Kan., and its plant
in Guymon, Okla. In fact, Seaboard is marketing the Triumph products.
"The philosophy of the Triumph members is that 'we're selling pork, not
hogs,"" says Mark Campbell, chief operating officer. And with an expertise in animal genetics, the producer-owners are committed to creating
the most sought after attributes in their pork products.
The all-inclusive structure of the new facility is not like many others. Nor is an ownership group that has as many as 330,000 sows
in production. "This industry is traditionally fragmented," says Campbell. "The integrated model puts the producers more in touch with the
quality wanted by consumers."
After its doors open Campbell expects to bring on about 1,000 workers
within the first five months. The plant is
being designed to process 1,000 head
per hour. The focus of the operation
will be slaughtering and processing
fresh pork, with no plans for cooking or
smoking products. The pork will be distributed to the retail, export, further processed and by-product markets.
A. Epstein and Sons International,
Inc., based in Chicago, is the design/
engineering and construction management firm for the Triumph project. John
Patelski, president, says the Triumph
officials approached Epstein with a list
of operational requirements for their
project and that is where the blueprint
started. "We helped shape the building
around the processes they mandated," he says. The product is the result

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Meat + Poultry - September 2004

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