Archives: Portfolios

Buffalo Rock is one of the largest single-family owned Pepsi-Cola bottlers, serving over 6.5 million people from its 14 distribution centers in the southeast.

The company is known as an innovator in the industry, having developed numerous successful closures and packaging since it began in 1901, including the 3-liter bottle, the 20-Pak Mini-Case for 12-ounce cans and 12-ounce and 20-ounce bottles. Buffalo Rock has grown to become a Total Beverage Company and one of the region’s largest providers of full-line vending and food services.

Buffalo Rock hasn’t stopped evolving since the day it was founded in 1901. Its facility needs evolved over the years, too, and when the company began to outgrow its distribution hub in Birmingham, Alabama, Buffalo Rock selected HPM to manage the 1 million-square-foot expansion. This includes the renovation of an 895,000-square-foot warehouse and an approximately 120,000-square-foot office building, which will serve as the central distribution hub for Central Alabama. Buffalo Rock first tapped HPM to oversee programming and planning for the initial stages of the project. HPM led site analysis efforts, including a site assessment involving environmental studies and the hiring of consultants to perform upfront due diligence, which ultimately enabled Buffalo Rock to purchase the property. By performing a cost analysis and identifying which areas of the project to prioritize, HPM helped Buffalo Rock and its partners identify and control costs in planning, condensing the overall project timeline.

After a successful project in Birmingham, Buffalo Rock called upon HPM once again to represent the company in the construction of their brand-new North Alabama distribution center in Huntsville, AL. Eager to further expand upon our food and beverage portfolio, we accepted the task at hand, and embarked on a two-year, 204,000 gross square feet project with Buffalo Rock. Matthew Dent, CEO and President of Buffalo Rock cast a vision on behalf of the company, stating “As our business grows and expands, we need a facility that could outpace us.” Dent went on to explain that this facility would have distribution impact from the state line of Mississippi to the Tennessee state line and would include the majority of the Northern and Northeastern regions of Alabama.

With the client’s needs at the forefront of their minds, HPM’s preconstruction team began assisting Buffalo Rock in their search for the ideal location to house the facility. As sites were explored, HPM expedited due-diligence and design efforts to ensure the project stayed on target for the established completion date. In due time, 55 acres of land were purchased, allowing space to accommodate 34 loading docks and 89 parking spaces for trucks and trailers and the desired square footage. Ground was broken on December 17, 2020, and construction promptly began.

Throughout the lifecycle of the project, HPM consistently led in cost reduction and optimization of time management, enabling the facility to achieve completion on July 14, 2022—ahead of schedule and within budget. Dent described HPM’s leadership on the project stating “When we first met with HPM, there was obviously a whole menu of services we could select. We selected the entire menu, which took us from site selection all the way through the completion and delivery of the final product. HPM has been in the driver’s seat from the get-go on this project, and it has been very successful”.

For 20 years, Mercedes-Benz has been producing cars in Alabama to serve all of North America. Now, with HPM’s help, it’s preparing to make Alabama a hub of operations for production around the world.

Its new, 278-acre Bibb County campus will include a 658,000-square-foot consolidation center to supply car kits to overseas assembly plants, and the 1.3-million-square-foot after-sales hub next door will provide spare parts to worldwide markets. HPM was selected early in the process to guide the initial phases of the project, including procurement, prequalification and cost negotiations, to get the project off to a smooth start.

GETTING UP TO SPEED
The road to the groundbreaking for the Bibb County campus required thorough and specific planning. Each facility is being constructed in two phases, with a design-build package and a site development package – with mass grading and infrastructure – for each. The after-sales hub will consolidate three existing facilities around the state and may ultimately be expanded to 2.5 million square feet. The facilities will also need to accommodate the process equipment Mercedes-Benz will need for production/distribution operations. HPM’s team worked closely with Mercedes-Benz’s process equipment supplier to integrate the equipment’s requirements into the overall design of the facility. And HPM will be there to oversee the installation of the process equipment in the facility to ensure that Mercedes-Benz has everything it will need to hit the ground rolling.

DETAILS:

• 658,000-square-foot Global Logistics Center
• 1.3 million-square-foot after-sales hub
• Multi-package design-build project
• Includes initial phase of installation of process equipment

The expansion and improvement of Royal Cup Coffee’s manufacturing facilities consists of multiple scopes of work including a new green bean receiving building, expansions to an existing manufacturing building, the addition of new roasting equipment, expansion of the existing warehouse and renovations to facilities for Safe Quality Foods (SQF) standards.

The project involves process design, building design, construction, procurement and installation of all equipment and equipment start-up.

Project features and unique conditions include:

• Production capacity increase
• Employee safety
• Food safety and quality
• Finished goods storage capacity
• Operational segregation
• Continuous, “no-hands” conveyor production system

BUILDING ON THE LEGACY OF ROYAL CUP’S RICH HERITAGE
Growing strong for more than a century, Royal Cup Coffee and Tea has developed from its small, hometown roots to become a major importer, roaster and distributor of the world’s finest specialty and premium coffees and teas. Royal Cup’s reach extends throughout the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, serving customers in the food service, hospitality, office, and specialty coffee markets. Sharing a similar starting point, HPM is proud to keep this tradition strong building on our client’s long-standing reputation as a quality roaster and distributor coupled with the latest innovations and expansions. Time is the ultimate test for any company, and since 1896, Royal Cup has been perfecting its craft. We are proud to serve alongside Royal Cup, which continues as a privately held, family company — offering dedicated service with a unique personal touch to each and every customer. At HPM, sometimes our best lessons learned are served up from our very own clients.

HPM was selected by long-time client, H-E-B Grocery Company to provide Construction Audit & Advisory Services as they sought to construct a production plant in the Houston area. The facility houses the grocery company’s manufacturing of their in-house brand snack products including potato chips, corn chips and other packaged snacks.

The building was built to meet new Food Safety Modernization Act standards and to evolve with new technologies that allow for autonomous operations. The construction team modeled the building’s interior and equipment to ensure appropriate placement and sizing, avoiding costly issues since the equipment was shipped from overseas. Throughout the process, HPM ensured the client’s budget was streamlined and maximized.

Continental Tires’ new Clinton, Mississippi, plant won’t just be the most technologically advanced tire plant in North America — it will also be a source of an additional 2,500 jobs in central Mississippi over the next nine years and an economic development opportunity for the state and region.

To make the project a success, German-based Continental Tires brought in HPM for program management services, based in large part on HPM’s experience leading construction of Airbus’ aerospace facility in Mobile, Alabama. HPM calls upon extensive experience with international clients to bridge national borders, fill in language gaps and navigate business and cultural differences to complete the project to the satisfaction of stakeholders on both sides of the ocean.

Cost Savings through Coordination and Review
Managing moving pieces in a project can be affect time delivery, product quality and the project budget. If managed poorly, the outcome could be financial loss. Fortunately, HPM’s involvement in the Continental Tire Plant project allowed for a smooth coordination schedule and ensured that each international party involved in the project was on time and accurate in their service delivery. HPM managed a 15-month building construction schedule. The construction schedule included intermediate milestones to accommodate manufacturing equipment installation, coordination of the building construction with manufacturing equipment, and the amount of change orders processed. The 325 total change orders involved nine levels of review, and HPM was engaged in each review for quantity verificiation, labor rate validation, scope reviews, and contract compliance. HPM’s involvement in change order reviews netted a significant savings to the owner as a result of their expertise and knowledge of the work.

Photos courtesy of Brasfield & Gorrie

Scheduled to open in early 2024, in Pasco, Wash., and create approximately 200 jobs, the Darigold facility is expected to process about 8 million pounds of milk per day, 175 million pounds of butter per year and close to 280 million pounds of powdered milk products annually once it is completely operational.

The marketing and processing subsidiary of the Northwest Dairy Association shared that the facility will utilize two specialized milk dryers and two packaging lines for premium proteins and powdered milk products, as well as two butter churns, two bulk butter packaging lines and five consumer butter packaging lines. HPM provided Audit & Contract services for this project, leading to significant cost savings to the owner.

HPM has been engaged in numerous FedEx projects at various locations across the country since 2017.

We provide services in auditing and contract negotiations, planning and programming, staff augmentation, design accountability, project team procurement, document control, communication and reporting, quality assurance and control, safety monitoring, commissioning, moving and occupancy and warranty control for FedEx. That’s what it takes to manage projects in multiple U.S. locations, at airports, in sorting facilities and storage complexes and at office buildings and training centers. And that’s our expertise.

A Breath of Fresh Air
Effective project and construction management requires clear communication among all involved parties. For projects spread across the country, with tight deadlines and ambitious schedules, that communication is as crucial as oxygen. From the very beginning, HPM established clear channels of communication with all key stakeholders — conscious, of course, of all their important and varied roles — and established an owner’s rep who could answer questions and keep approvals moving at a steady pace. We’ve been able to anticipate FedEx’s needs and start working with vendors and other third-party providers so we can address those needs as soon as they arise. Together with FedEx’s internal team, we’ve worked quickly and purposefully to maximize productivity and deliver project after successful project while letting our client breathe easy.