This was a unique project. The area was approximately 140’ x 100’. The area enclosed a two-story office building, which was within the operating plant.

The first step of the project was to construct a temporary stud frame wall system around the entire office. The challenge was that the product was being conveyed through and around this area. We were in an ongoing production area and health standards had to be rigidly maintained.

The next step was to physically tear down the office building inside the plant, while not contaminating the existing production systems. The scrap materials were encased in plastic, taken out, and disposed of. Then, inside the temporary building, we constructed a 28’ tall panel building for processing candy for export.

This project was done under both extreme sanitation and time constraints.

With the introduction of home-delivered pizza, Domino’s grew extremely fast.

Each one of the distributors has to have a facility large enough to provide dry, cooled and frozen materials to construct a pizza. This particular project was a five-zone pizza-dough and preparations building that prepared the raw material to be shipped to the individual cooking locations.

The approximate size was 115’ x 125’. The project included some unique heat-transfer and relative-humidity requirements in the dough preparation, dough blast cooling, and dough storage areas. The dough preparation and mixing area was moist from wash downs, floor contamination and heavy machinery loads. The blast cooling area had tremendous heat loads, fast product-cooling requirements, and humidification. The storage area was where air movement and close temperature control was critical.

These problems were solved through special applications work using primarily off-the-shelf refrigeration equipment manufactured by Larkin Coils here in Atlanta.

Schering-Plough
Cleveland, TN.

Refrigerated Storage for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Anheuser-Busch Distributor
Athens & Gainesville, GA

Refrigerated Controlled Environment Warehouse (CEW) for case and keg beer, approximately 150 thousand square feet of construction done in 5 phases.

Pepsi-Co/Gatorade
Atlanta, GA
Gatorade Division Line # 5

Installed Production Bottling Area & Ingredient Storage on a deadline within Operating Facility

Kellogg's/Murray Biscuit
Augusta, GA &
Heidi's Gourmet Dessert
Tucker, GA

Construction of Cooler, Blast Cooler, Spiral Cooler & Freezer for Cookie/Dessert Products

Bensons Bakery Inc.
Bogart, GA

Refrigerated Blast Cooling for Bakery Products Manufacturing

This unique company bakes and distributes high volumes of quality snack foods.

The company’s facilities date from the late 1950’s to the recently completed construction. The older facilities are in a constant process of mechanical and insulation renovations as well as changing production layouts.

Projects included:

• Mechanical renovation of receiving coolers and freezers.
• Renovation of in-process ingredients.
• Construction of an insulated “hot room” for ingredients curing.
• Several insulation replacement projects.
• Control systems.

Sunnyland Farms
Atlanta, GA
Pecan Storage and Processing Area

The construction at this location was designed to provide the customer two marketing advantages. The building was designed for multiple purposes. During the picking season, it was a low-temperature storage facility which allowed the company to “play the market” with product sales. The Christmas application was 40 degrees for mail-order products manufactured on site.

We installed a large 1,000,000-pound storage freezer for pecans. The storage temperature was 10 degrees. It was unique in that it was following new marketing trends. At 10 degrees, pecans can be stored for a lengthy amount of time without any discoloration.

The storage cooler was 80’ x 60’ x 28’ and was a single- span internal steel system. It incorporated the new discus-style refrigeration system which, through a low compression ratio system and several internal energy-saving devices, produces more capacity at about 20 per cent less energy cost.

Keebler Cookie Company
Macon, GA
Raw Ingredient Storage

This time-critical project was associated with the startup of a new production line. The budget was already set and the original contractor had defaulted.

The project was expedited and completed on time and on budget

Berry College
Rome, GA
Meat Processing Facility

This agriculture-based college built a new facility to support expansion of their meat production and processing program. The facility includes freezers, production and cooler areas, and the associated USDA requirements.

While on site, we constructed a bulb “curing” facility as an extra courtesy for the client.

This old-line manufacturer of Twin Pets dog and cat food was purchased and facility renovation was initiated.

The problems were many and included:

1. A poultry cooler, which was basically sound but was installed and maintained poorly with temperatures varying 45 degrees on a spring day.

2. A 1960’s built-in-place freezer with a central ammonia plant. Both the central plant and the insulation had substantially failed.

3. The upstairs poultry cooler had completely failed. The equipment incorporated R-12, ozone-depleting, refrigerant.

This project included budget restraints and a summer weather deadline.

In a nine-week period, a new 5,000-square-feet freezer was constructed, equipment was converted to the new family of non-depleting refrigerants, all existing coolers were renovated, and several air conditioning projects were undertaken.

Atlanta Foods International
Atlanta, Georgia
Storage Freezer

This project was an additional storage freezer for a food distributor in downtown Atlanta.

The storage freezer was approximately 30’ x 45’ x 12’, maintained –10 degrees, and was built on the second story of a building which included a complex slab system to both manage energy and avoid condensation on the first level.

The project was done under a tight schedule, in an operating distribution area, and with no interference with existing operations.

This unique facility is a prototype for the future, the first of its type in the United States. The Atlanta Airport site is a special purpose building designed to service airplanes on the airport apron receiving containerized shipments of perishable products including meats, cheeses, flowers, seafood, etc., from all over the world.

The facility is then used to store, repackage and reship (by air truck) smaller quantities. The site is approximately 50,000 square feet and includes an equine facility for livestock and racehorses.

Unique design considerations included many container configurations, fumigations, security, inspection facilities, regulation problems, etc.

The opening of this facility was reported widely in local newspapers, and was exposed heavily again during the 1996 Olympics.

The objective of the customer was to provide additional processing capacity while increasing capabilities for an on-site blast-cooling and freezing system to meet increased USDA requirements.

To meet the objective, we installed a large food- processing area to expand their production capabilities. The processing construction included a 10,000-square- feet mezzanine, two 60-HP blast freezers, and one 40- HP blast cooler. The blast freezer was designed to cool 40,000 pounds of product from 180 degrees to –10 degrees in six hours.

The preparation cooler was a massive open area for cooking, manufacturing and packaging the finished product. The rib or chicken blast cooler was to quickly cool down hot products to be shipped at 32 degrees internal temperature.

This was a series of ongoing renovation projects done during the client’s non-production hours, which included coolers, doors, electrical, and refrigeration.

This repeat customer was able to continue production with our special off-hours schedule.

In January 1999, we received a call from the general manager of Dean Sausage requiring immediate help with fire damage. The 1950-1960 plant design contained a high percentage of wood. Late Sunday evening, an electrical panel shorted causing a devastating fire. We arrived on Monday morning to a still-smoking facility in ashes. All but a single block wall was destroyed.

We created a construction management team including an architect, owner, manager, and our staff. The group stayed together and coordinated throughout the design, permit, site, structure, and trade portions, to complete the facility on an emergency basis.

The new 50,000-square-foot facility includes a kill floor, processing facility, blast freezing, slicing, tempering, dry storage, and freezer storage.

This company, relying on assistance from friends and competitors, managed to continue production till the new facility came on line in November of 1999.

Flav-O-Rich Dairies
Atlanta, Georgia
Freezer Remodel

This project required structural and insulation system repair within a minus 20-degree hardening freezer.

A poorly designed existing insulation system had become ice saturated. The weight of the ice was causing both structural and insulation system damage which in turn was causing additional infiltration problems.

Repairs and remodeling were done on an emergency basis around operational shifts.

Gourmet Concepts International
Tucker, Georgia
Plant Move and Renovation
Cheesecake Production

The company was faced with the growth problems associated with a booming gourmet-desserts industry.

An undersized plant in Clarkston, Georgia, was to be moved to a new Tucker facility, which tripled its size.

The move incorporated existing equipment with equipment purchased from a New Jersey facility.

This move was accomplished with minimum production down time and maximum efficiency.

This long-term client has used our company for:
• Design, construction and installation of an electronic control system.
• Installation and expansion of a 33-degree keg cooler.
• Construction of six environmentally controlled warehouses totaling 150,000+ ft2 (4,000,000 ft3) of additional storage.
• A complete service and monthly maintenance program.

This highly visible and successful business services university and business concern in the Athens and North Georgia operational areas distributes a full line of Anheuser-Busch products.

This client had a need for additional storage and shipping space, but could not shut down production. Therefore, we constructed a cooler addition without affecting the production and shipping operations. Construction was coordinated with an existing general contractor on site.

The procedure was relatively painless for both the contractor and the owner.

The problem was the packing area. As the production lines were sped up, two tons of Fig Newton cookies were sticking together during the packing process.

The product was coming in at 185 degrees and had to be reduced to 40 degrees in 13 minutes. The answer was a blast-cooling system incorporating a 25-feet spiral, multiple stages of cooling, 2 stages of air control and a control center to monitor the results.

Due to production requirements, the entire process had to be accomplished during a single 10-day shutdown period in July.

By running two construction shifts, coordinating with President’s personnel, subcontractors and a materials staging process, this project was completed on time and the results exceeded specifications by 25 per cent.

The project included three phases of plant expansion and included storage coolers, remodels, machinery rooms, test labs, etc., over a three-year period.

Quaker Oats had experienced considerable growth in this particular product area. Phase one included a test lab, machinery rooms, and an automated meat-slicing room. Phase two included a meat-storage area. Phase three included expansion and renovation of the meat-storage area.

This national client has been very loyal and we are presently working on initial engineering for a fourth addition.

This client is a specialized meat cutter, producing steaks for a wide range of restaurants.

The client had a very specific problem that faces many food manufacturers–a minimal amount of available land on the existing site.

Through a lengthy design process, several concepts were considered and rejected. Each rejection produced the next refinement, which utilized square footage just a little more efficiently.

The final design produced a construction plan which included: construction of the new building in multiple steps; demolition of two existing buildings; remodeling of the existing building; moving all utilities including a 4,000-amp electrical service to the existing refrigerated plant; design and construction of a new waste water system; etc., all with no interruption of the existing production.

The net result was a refined flow, tripled production area, increased storage, dedicated area for product tempering, etc.

Tennessee Hotel Supply
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Distribution Freezer

This old-line food distributor purchased an existing Hormel Meat plant and had the need for additional floor space.

This racked space was completed in record time and to the customer’s specifications. The racked warehouse is on a compact site and construction was done while the facility continued to operate.

Along with the warehouse, we did renovation on the existing building and corrected several structural problems.

The project allowed Tennessee Hotel Supply to remain at the existing distribution site, which was desirable for servicing existing clients.