The food and beverage industry is a demanding world. Businesses must quickly respond to a market that’s constantly changing and unforgiving in its demand for quality and safety.
Haskell’s Food & Beverage Division has been in business for more than a half-century and is consistently ranked the best in the industry. Many of the world’s best-known brands have trusted Haskell to deliver food and beverage production, packaging and distribution solutions.
Haskell doesn’t just construct buildings. Instead, the company specializes in single-sourced engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, overseeing every step of a project from its design, project management and the ultimate delivery of a turnkey facility.
“We are a one-stop shop, a single source of accountability,” said Keith Perkey, Vice President of Manufacturing Solutions. “We take total responsibility over a project and ensure it goes well for the customer. Businesses hire us because we will give you the outcome you want.”
Haskell has always been at the forefront of driving improvement in the industry. The company was one of the pioneers of the Design-Build delivery model for facility construction and in the past decade expanded the delivery model to include the facility and manufacturing assets when it began acquiring engineering and consulting firms that specialized in manufacturing and processing solutions
In 2010, Haskell acquired E2M, a leading engineering firm that provided manufacturing consulting, packaging systems, material handling and distribution, and system analytics and modeling services. Haskell added more depth in 2013 with the acquisition of Seiberling, an engineering and technical consulting company that provides process, clean-in-place (CIP) and sterilize-in-place (SIP) design and control system integration services for food and dairy customers.
These moves gave Haskell the in-house capability to not just build facilities but also to design and install state-of-the-art manufacturing and packaging systems, which further established the company as a leader in the food and beverage construction industry.
Food & Beverage is one of Haskell’s longest-standing markets, and it’s the largest division of the company.
The foundation of Haskell’s food and beverage business is repeat work for flagship clients, which includes world leaders in beverage and snack food manufacturing in a highly competitive industry, there’s no better testament to a company’s reputation than returning customers.
For instance, in the past 25 years, Haskell has built all major greenfield manufacturing plants for Frito-Lay in North America and performed the majority of expansions and renovations in its existing network of more than 200 facilities. Other long-term clients include Tropicana, Nestlé Waters and HP Hood, all of which have contracted Haskell to oversee single-source distribution and packaging facilities across the country.
Core industry verticals for this Division include baked snacks, dairy, juices and carbonated beverages. Energy drinks have boomed in popularity, and Haskell is working to pivot its experience in beverages to this emerging market.
However, Haskell isn’t ready to count out soda, either.
“What appears to be happening is that many of the soda companies’ production and bottling facilities are old and tired,” Perkey said. “There’s an opportunity to build new and become more efficient.”
Haskell is an established leader in designing and building plants for food safety, which has positioned the company well to take advantage of new developments in the industry. The passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which has impacted every aspect of the country’s food system, required many companies to modernize their facilities. Another opportunity is the growing commissary market, which produces ready-to-eat packaged meals in off-site processing plants for later sale in coffee shops and convenience stores.
“None of that food is prepared at the coffee shop. Someone is making the sandwiches, the cheese and protein plates in plants all across the country. You can’t just go hire any general contractor that’s been building hotels and restaurants for those types of facilities,” Perkey said.
As consumer tastes continue to evolve, Haskell is well-positioned to serve customers in other emerging markets, especially plant-based protein, sustainable protein and dairy producers.
“The plant-based and sustainable protein companies are generally science-based startups that focus on the engineering discipline. We’ve got a great resume for that,” Perkey said. “We did the first production plant for one of the market leaders. It takes science and chemistry. That lends itself to our expertise and talent.”
Haskell is providing customers the latest advances in technology to build smarter facilities, such as energy-efficient motors for cooling fans, data-driven climate control systems, LED light systems and even solar energy systems.
Whether Haskell is designing a sprawling bottling and distribution center or a food-production facility for a startup that has changed the way people think about their “burger,” Perkey said Haskell’s culture is what sets it apart from its competitors.
“We’re very proud of our food and beverage business. We’re known for having really good people and having a customer-focused, get-it-done attitude,” Perkey said. “We are different in the way we work with our customers. It’s how we sell and win projects. That’s not easy to duplicate anywhere else.”
