As a supplier with a product portfolio boasting more than 700 packaging components and filling array units, the company is a go-to solutions provider for discerning fabricators from around 50 countries—all packers of liquid products demanding specialty packaging arrays to suit their unique product characteristics and facility layouts.

Serving a diverse range of industries such as specialty chemicals, automotive, beauty, food, and beverage, the company has always been proud of the innovation it brings to market. With that undeniable sense of innovation providing the company with a distinct edge, it has made its mark on the local market since 1996, when it started selling pre-owned machinery.

Today, IFS is driven to fabricate quality systems dictated by the express process demands clients present during the ideation phase. Engineering its systems based on blueprints developed from those needs, the IFS team can spot potential issues and solve them before they become a problem.

Whatever the liquid filling application may be, IFS has the expertise to develop filling, packaging, and bottle transfer machinery that makes sense, alongside capping and other arrays to suit. Such applications include bottle cleaning systems, unscrambling machines for high-speed addition of bottles into filling arrays, turntables to feed conveyor belts with new, empty containers, and labeling machines—which can additionally be used for dry products. The company also supplies heat tunnels—machines that shrink-wrap plastic labeling onto containers.

Naturally, where there are systems, there is a need for integration, and to this end, the team offers fully automated integration alongside superb customer support.

While the company does collaborate with third-party fabricators when incorporating technology or systems not available in its offering, IFS is a proudly American fabricator that has historically gone to great lengths to keep its manufacturing and sourcing on American soil. In addition to supplying turnkey systems, it provides customers with premium machine maintenance and servicing—preferably long before anything breaks.

One of the more unexpected markets the company serves includes the funeral sector. Embalming liquid, of course, needs to be bottled, as do tombstone cleaners. Here, IFS provides larger systems to fill drums, barrels, buckets, bags-in-boxes, and boxes with whatever chemicals morgues and funeral parlors need.

Other industries served include adult personal care products, automotive cleaning chemicals, paint, agricultural chemicals, and more. There are also distillers like Devils River Whiskey and others who turn to IFS for long-life machinery. Committed to delivering proudly American excellence, IFS machines also carry the worldwide stamp of electrical safety, namely the Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL) mark, while using FDA-approved components as well.

Built to last, customers know that when they buy an IFS machine, they’re buying for the long haul. As a result, its list of longstanding customers is a testimony to the value of building lasting relationships based on mutual respect and integrity. It is also good for business, as happy customers typically refer more customers to great suppliers.

The company has always led with stability and has therefore kept its growth healthy yet conservative. By not approaching expansion with tremendously flashy growth spurts, it has led with a reputation for reliability and dependability. In this way, it also established a culture of continuity that results in long tenures, as employees enjoy the predictability and safety that come with job security. This continuity translates into a certain sense of familiarity for customers who benefit from working with a stable team over many years.

Cost and ease of ownership are two aspects carefully considered in all of the company’s engineering and design. Providing machines that are easy to clean, easily integrated into related systems, and, above all, easy to maintain—beyond being of outstanding quality—gives customers what they want, and customer satisfaction is, ultimately, this industry leader’s focus.

Despite insisting on keeping clients happy, however, IFS is not one to lull them into a sense of comfort for the mere sake of upholding the status quo. On the contrary, the team is always pushing the boundaries of what is possible, improving its already fine systems beyond present possibilities through continuous innovation. As such, it makes a point of keeping customers up to speed with new additions and technology that can improve their productivity, uptime, and overall experience.

As an industry leader, the company often partners with organizations supporting the industries it serves, such as Pack Expo, the American Distilling Institute, and the Petroleum Packaging Council. By partnering with trusted organizations, customers know they are in good hands. And, to further reassure and support them, the company is also openly committed to providing aftersales service solid enough to maximize uptime for its customers. “High-quality after-sales service begins long before a malfunction occurs. Inline Filling Systems guarantees efficient functioning without interruptions right from the beginning,” the company states on its website.

With the rising global awareness toward healthier living, we look forward to seeing how the company will continue innovating to meet this need in the market in terms of machines fit to handle novel, more complex packaging.

The post Liquid Excellence<p class="company">Inline Filling Systems</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“We are adding another 135,000 square feet of new production area, and we have the option to add another four construction stages of similar size, which provides us the flexibility to expand our company further as business keeps growing over the next years,” states Chief Sales Officer Thomas Neubert. “These expansions are being driven by the need for more space for projects in the EV (electric vehicle) industry.”

Once the expansion is complete, the Bluffton facility will top half a million square feet. The Ohio plant is GROB’s only North American production plant, although the company also has production plants in Germany, Italy, India, China, and Brazil, and service and sales offices in 15 additional countries in the world.

Since last year, GROB has launched new solutions and maintained a hiring spree. “As of today, we’re at 839 employees [in Bluffton], plus around a ballpark of 50 contractors. So there are about 900 people here. At the end of 2025, we project around 1,100,” says Apprenticeship Training Supervisor Mark Reed.

Founded by Dr. Ernst Grob in Munich in 1926, the company was initially known as a manufacturer of machining centers. Over the decades, it expanded its product line and global presence. The Bluffton branch was founded in 1983.

While serving a variety of sectors including aerospace, defense, energy, medical, and die and mold, automotive now accounts for roughly 80 percent of the company’s workload, says Neubert. Half of all automotive work involves EVs. GROB designs and builds systems for producing rotors, stators, electric drive units, battery cells, modules, and packs for the e-mobility market.

In order to optimize weight, several OEMs shifted from using several smaller sheet metal parts to produce certain parts of the chassis to so called “mega-castings,” gigantic aluminum die cast parts, that make up half of the vehicle’s structure. Such structures are also used for battery housings in EVs. Given these realities, GROB recently expanded its F-Series with the larger G900F and G920F machining centers specifically designed to process such mega-castings. The G900F/G920F has a work area that stretches to 2.1×3 meters or “about the size of a table. That’s the size of the battery trays,” notes Neubert, saying that, down the road, the company may build even larger machining centers for aerospace parts.

GROB’s parent company has joined forces with German firms Durr and Manz to provide equipment for the entire process chain for producing lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are intended primarily—but not exclusively—for use in electric vehicles.

“We are now at the point where we have groups working together in all three companies between marketing, sales, and product development… The corporation is not only for cars,” says Neubert. It is also looking at “stationary energy storage systems and maybe consumer electronics. That could be something in the future.” The company will be providing updates about its battery plant plans at trade shows and other public events to come, he adds.

Liquid metal printing is another non-traditional area that GROB is exploring. When we spoke last year, GROB had developed a unique GMP300 liquid metal printer. It has sold a few of these printers to universities and research institutions and is currently looking to expand its customer base.

“This is kind of a niche market, but we have very high printing speed and accuracy which we didn’t find anywhere else. The challenge we are working on is to make it flexible for different printing materials; right now, we can only do certain types of aluminum,” Neubert shares.

For all of GROB’s growth within the e-mobility sector, the family-owned firm has not forgotten its roots. “We are still a company that builds metal cutting machines. This is what we’ve done for nearly 100 years,” he says.

Metal cutting machines, of course, remain popular and profitable, enabling the company to finance research and development into new technology. Going forward, GROB plans for metal-cutting machines to continue to account for a healthy share of company revenue. As such, the team has been designing new machines, enhancing old models, and producing more universal machines than ever before in Bluffton.

“We tell our customers, ‘We want to build the machines for the U.S. market here in the U.S.,’ says Universal Machines, Sales, and Proposal Manager Derek Schroeder.

GROB has introduced Heidenhain controls on mill turn machines—previously, these machines only featured Siemens controls—and continues to develop its GROB-NET4 Industry software. This suite includes GROB4TDX, a tool data transmission solution; GROB4Analyze, which scrutinizes production data; and GROB4Line, which enables operators to remotely monitor GROB machines on a computer or smartphone.

The GRC-R12 compact robot cell is another futuristic addition to the portfolio. The ‘12’ designation refers to the robot’s 12-kilogram payload, explains Schroeder, and the GRC-R12 is designed to be used in tandem with the company’s G150 five-axis universal machining center, primarily for medical manufacturing. While medical manufacturing work is being increasingly re-shored from China, the cost of doing business in North America is still much higher than it is in Asia. Given this, automated solutions that can reduce costs, such as the GRC-R12, “become more necessary,” he says.

The company has also developed an autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) called the GROB Mobile Robot (GMR), a pallet storage and centralized tool management solution that transports pallets and tools without a human operator. Such solutions go a long way in helping clients address the skilled labor gap as, across North America, workers in manufacturing are hitting retirement age and not enough young people are entering the profession to replace them.

Other recent company innovations include a linear pallet system with two set-up stations. One station is manually loaded by a human operator while a robot at the other station performs loading for high-production work. This hybrid solution maximizes choice and efficiency on the plant floor, Schroeder explains.

These advanced solutions are matched by the care and consideration of the Grob family, which still owns the firm. The family is “constantly looking ahead [and thinking], ‘What do we need to develop next? Where do we need to invest in the company to grow with our customers?’ If you look at some of our competition, they are slower to pivot. I would put that on the Grob family being driven to be one step ahead,” he says.

In a reflection of the company’s devotion to quality, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certifications for the Ohio facility were renewed last year. The firm also has International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) registration, which means it can bid on military aerospace projects.

The Bluffton plant works closely with the parent company. If a customer approaches the U.S. branch with a challenge, an American team will consult with colleagues in Germany. Once a solution is decided upon, the parent company takes care of the final design, while production is handled in the U.S.

This arrangement is clearly working, given how fast the Bluffton branch is growing. And to ensure a steady supply of fresh talent, it offers a comprehensive apprenticeship program. “We’re looking at bringing in between 40 and 50 people a year through that program, which lasts four years,” says Reed.

Apprentices learn both electrical and mechanical skills during an initial ‘basic training’ phase in year one, he explains. After that, they pursue more in-depth electrical or mechanical training. The apprentices begin classes in the fall semester of their first year two days a week at Rhodes State College where they are paid their hourly rate to study electromechanical engineering technology while the company covers tuition costs of their associate’s degree. The rest of the week is spent training at GROB. Over the four-year program, apprentices work toward obtaining a journeyman’s certificate and know they have a permanent job at GROB.

The company wants apprentices “with a positive outlook on life—someone that looks at a problem as an opportunity rather than a defeat, someone willing to learn,” says Reed. The firm also emphasizes interpersonal skills and reminds apprentices that they represent the company even off-duty.

GROB hosts tours for prospective apprentices and their friends and families, and once new construction is completed in 2025, the company is planning to hold a public open house.

Looking ahead, the firm wants to continue growing its share of the e-mobility market, in part by entering the EV battery sector. “We are working on some quotations for battery projects. We haven’t had any battery projects here in Bluffton in the past, but this is logically the next step we want to take,” Neubert shares. “This would be the next big challenge here for the team to implement the technology successfully and develop it on time.”

He emphasizes that, “we want to grow organically—in the range of 10 percent each year—and grow with our main customer base, which is the automotive industry. We want to stay the number-one source of high-volume production equipment in the automotive industry. Whatever direction they will go—if further into EVs or new battery technology—we will provide solutions.”

The post Expanding Its North American Footprint<p class="company"></p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“The waste industry is constantly changing,” so the team needs to stay “five steps ahead,” says Director of Operations, Post Collection, Justin Raymond. Motivation comes from the values promoted by the Caglia family, who emphasize continuous improvement and sustainability. The company wants “to be at the forefront of anything new, great, and environmentally friendly,” he summarizes.

Robotics have been the latest focus. After expanding Fresno’s Cedar Avenue Recycling and Transfer Station (CARTS) in 2022, the team needed to increase efficiency. Robots were a natural next step because they free people to concentrate their efforts in areas of the facility where more labor is needed. “Also, robots just perform well,” says Plant Manager, Corey Stone, PE. “Robots are capable of doing some tasks that humans aren’t capable of. Sometimes that means speed but, more often than not, it’s about detection of material.”

A vast array of materials passes through the facility each day, making fast and efficient detection paramount. Take different types of plastics, for example. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), low density polyethylene (LDPE), and high-density polyethylene (HDP) must all be carefully sorted—not an easy task for human eyes. So, the company received funding from The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition grant program to obtain a robot to sort all of this polypropylene plastic.

“Currently, in the line, we have a tandem robot that’s targeting PET and HDPE,” Stone says. “That robot, with its vision system and AI technology, is able to accurately determine [the] material type. Whereas with the naked eye, when you look at a cup or bottle, it’s really hard to tell if it’s LDPE, PET, or HDP. You’re trying to figure out ‘what is this piece of material?’ as it’s flying by you at 200 feet per minute, and that’s really hard for a person to do. That’s where this technology comes into play. In a fraction of a second, it can categorize that material, tell you how much area, estimate the mass, and choose if it should target this material.”

Typically, PET products must go to a secondary facility to be sorted before they can be sold. “In our case, we’re taking a comingled product where there’s everything—fiber, cardboard, metal, aluminum and plastic—and we’re already getting a very sorted product,” says Stone. Achieving this through artificial intelligence is breaking new ground. “To our knowledge, and to The Recycling Partnership’s knowledge, we are now the first single-stream MRF (material recovery facility) who, through sortation, provides three PET products,” he says.

Not surprisingly, the innovative system is catching the industry’s attention. “It generated a lot of buzz with The Recycling Partnership,” he says. “They were excited about it. Of course, Caglia is [eager] to set a precedent of being at the forefront of any sort of sustainability or sorting technology.”

Other facilities are already using the example as inspiration and guidance. “We are very excited about this project, not only for us in our facility… but also for this industry, what that could mean,” Stone says. “We are hearing whispers of other companies potentially building mega-MRFs where they would start doing this, and I think this is a great case that shows this is possible. You can take a comingled product, and you can have very specialized commodity streams. We’re all very proud to be the example set for the rest of the nation for what it looks like to spread PET into multiple products and that it can be done.”

In addition, the team has installed a next-generation robot to sort cans at the facility’s “last chance line,” identifying recyclables that would otherwise evade detection. The robot picks out material “that already went through our system, already went through a series of screens and optical sorters, potentially even areas where there was some human interaction, and it ended up on a belt that was destined for the landfills,” Raymond explains.

Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) provided funding for the EverestLabs AI through a revenue sharing leasing model that enables MRFs to afford advanced sorting technology. “It was the first time that a robot was funded through CAN Manufacturers Institute in this kind of model,” he says. “It’s so unique in this industry.”

“We capture the aluminum that would otherwise be thrown away, and we share 50 percent of that revenue with them,” Stone explains. “It was really a win-win for us because, even if we’re not getting 100 percent of that value, our ultimate goal is sustainability. We want to make sure that as many recyclables as possible are not going to the landfill.”

This novel partnership is generating buzz as an example of what the industry can achieve by thinking outside the box. The project also has exciting implications that could potentially reach beyond the industry, since it demonstrates that “other companies can get involved in the recycling process even if they’re not a recycler,” Stone says. “We’re hoping that MRFs hear what we’ve done here and replicate that process through other projects of their own.”

Caglia Environmental is at the forefront of adopting new technology, but some things will always stay the same at the company. The team holds fast to the Caglia family values and work ethic that built the business over the decades. “As exciting as the technology is for the family, we get that it all started out with vision, with leadership, passion for the environment, and a passion for people,” says General Manager, Keith Hester. “The people that work here, they love working here. We just had a gentleman retire after 46 years. People come here and they stay here because of the culture the Caglia family has built.”

Founder Frank Caglia immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1920 and settled in Fresno, California. In 1924, at just 12 years old, he began working at the Electric Motor Shop and eventually bought the company after working his way to the top. Frank went on to buy the Orange Avenue Landfill from his father-in-law in 1941. “We owned and operated that for years and years,” Hester says.

The team was committed to sustainability even in those early days of the business. “In 1967, we began celebrating Earth Day—before it was a national holiday,” Hester says. “That’s how passionate the Caglia family was about diverting product.”

The team launched Industrial Waste and Salvage (IWS) in 1971 to collect waste and bring it to the landfill. The forward-thinking mindset continued in the 2000s. Recognizing that the Orange Avenue Landfill was reaching the end of its life, the Caglia family made another investment. “The thought was, this landfill is going to close soon,” says Hester. “We are not going to go out of business. We are going to innovate.”

The family opened CARTS to the public in 2004. The state-of-the-art MRF processes trash, construction and demolition debris, green waste and organic recyclables, and traditional recycling from commercial, government, industrial, and residential customers. The facility recycles more than 70 percent of its collected trash, green/organics, and recyclables, creating raw materials that will be transformed into new consumer products instead of ending up in a landfill.

In 2012, the business catapulted forward once again when Redrock Environmental Group, a Caglia Family Company, won a sizable contract to become the exclusive service provider for the lower elevations of Madera County.

And in 2016, Caglia Environmental made another innovative leap. “We’ve got this landfill that’s sitting there,” says Hester. “We can’t use it anymore. What’s it generating? It’s generating gas. So, we put in a genset and started landfill gas conversion to electricity that actually powered the entire plant here.”

Most recently, the company partnered with CP Manufacturing to expand CARTS, leading to the current state of affairs in which robots became the next logical step. The team is eager to continue adopting the latest technology to keep moving forward to promote sustainability within the industry, but will balance any future growth with the company values that have brought them this far. “We don’t want to be the biggest,” Hester summarizes. “We want to be the best.”

The post The Future of Recycling<p class="company">Caglia Environmental</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“We’ve had in-house automation for years, primarily on our brewing systems, but now we’ve developed the same thing for continuous columns,” explains Operations Manager John Leask of the technology for distilling spirits.

Specific Mechanical Systems created a continuous column distillation system that represents a significant advancement over traditional column still designs and offers a more efficient distillation process when compared with pot still distillation. While spirits are commonly produced in single batches via a time-consuming start-and-stop method, the continuous column system allows for uninterrupted flow. The company’s novel automation system has now made this speedy distillation process even more efficient and productive.

“Essentially, you can produce any type of spirit on the continuous column still. Customers will potentially prefer to create certain types of spirits on more traditional pot stills but, in terms of general distillation principles, any spirit can be produced on a continuous column still,” notes Sales and Marketing Manager Chad MacIsaac.

To automate its continuous distillation process, Specific could not rely on the same procedures and equipment it utilized to automate brewing. “There are some similarities for sure between what our automation system for the brewing and distilling will look like and perform like, but functionally, they are different systems and different processes,” says Leask.

Unlike typical brewing systems, distilleries operating continuous column stills often utilize extremely large equipment. To complement its continuous column stills, Specific Mechanical fabricates large stainless steel tanks that can accommodate thousands of litres of liquid. The column stills used for continuous distillation can be “anywhere from 30 to 70 feet tall,” he adds.

Continuous distillation systems are enormous. “Many of them are never actually fully assembled at our shop. They’re built and tested in sub-assemblies and are then fully assembled at the customer site,” Leask says. By contrast, “breweries aren’t that tall; we can set the whole thing up in our shop and test the complete system working on our shop floor.”

Brewing involves significant concentrations of water, and the sensors and testing devices used in the brewing process cannot always be used for distilling, which involves significant concentrations of ethanol. For a start, most ethanol testing equipment “needs to be explosion-proof rated. That cuts down your options dramatically,” he states.

Yet despite these difficulties, the in-house automation team prevailed. Automated continuous column distillation is the latest example of the company’s successful do-it-yourself approach. Fabrication, manufacturing, design, and automation work is performed in-house, and Specific Mechanical also continues to emphasize research and the development of new equipment and new processes.

Forward-thinking and innovative as it may be, the company retains an old-fashioned artisan pride in its work. “Every system is customized,” says Leask. “Of course, we have some templates that we draw from but, at the end of the day, every system is customized to suit the customer’s available space, ceiling heights, their process, what products they’re hoping to distill or brew, and their budget.”

Besides brewing and distilling equipment, the company designs and produces pressure and food processing vessels, wastewater tanks, stainless steel tanks, and other gear. Its products are used in wastewater treatment, oil and gas, other food and beverage markets, and pharmaceutical production, and the company has also been involved with battery technology for electric vehicles, according to MacIsaac.

“Without naming names, there are a handful of companies that are advancing battery technology in North America,” he says. “In the process of improving range, they’re looking at optimizing battery performance, and that involves fluid transfer, fluid storage. We provide the processing equipment to help in that regard.”

The company employs approximately 85 people at its Victoria operation. Another 35 people work at a facility run by the firm in Nevada. Job applicants need to have skills, experience, and a team player outlook.

“The right technical training is important, whether that’s someone on the shop floor in the trades—welding, machining, sheet metal, et cetera. On the office side, we’ve got engineers, project managers, et cetera,” says Leask, noting that the appropriate education and experience for those positions is required. “Beyond that, I think one of the biggest things we look for is somebody who is going to be a good fit with the team. We really promote teamwork, and that kind of comes through with our culture.”

In addition to a collaborative approach, this culture is all about quality and customer service. This includes “being available, being friendly, and being pleasant to deal with so people want to come back and work with us again,” he says. Those customers range from small craft brewers and distillers to huge corporations, including beer giants Labatt and Molson.

Though eager to expand the business it does with top brewers and distillers, Specific Mechanical has not lost touch with its roots. The firm was launched in 1984 by Bill Cummings and Philip Zacharias, long-time friends with backgrounds in machining and welding. At first, the pair built brewing systems for clients in Victoria, and it grew from there.

“Our company is different from many companies that compete in our space because we’re local. We’ve been around 40 years. We were started by two people,” states MacIsaac. “The values of a small company remain strong as we grow. We try to make sure every new employee who comes on understands and recognizes it. It’s really important for us to convey that message to customers so they know they are dealing with real people… and together, we’ll both be successful.”

To help ensure client success, Specific offers global installation services. “While our primary market is North America, our field service team is capable of doing installations worldwide,” says MacIsaac. “We’ve just delivered a very large system to Argentina, which will be the first large craft distillery in Argentina. We’re delivering a system to Rwanda, which will be our first system into continental Africa.”

The company provides both remote and in-person support to clients looking for guidance in setting up their equipment or dealing with problems.

Given that most of Specific Mechanical’s equipment is geared toward the beverage market, customer support is complemented by a commitment to quality. It has certifications from UL and Underwriters Laboratories of Canada (ULC), and the company’s pressure vessel design and manufacturing capabilities have been certified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

“There’s a pretty rigorous quality program in place to support that. Any ASME pressure vessel must be registered with the provincial government, if it’s in Canada. In the U.S., it’s called the National Board. There’s documentation, testing—numerous steps that have to be taken for those vessels. We have all that in place and have for many years,” says Leask.

Currently, the company is in the process of establishing an online store. The intent is to make its wares more easily accessible and available.

“Some new products lend themselves a little better to putting on an e-commerce site—not so much custom systems, but some of the more product-based things we have. For example, a keg washer. We have various pumps and things like that that we frequently sell, and we can put those up on an e-commerce site, and we’ll see how that goes. If it’s successful, we can keep building the inventory of what we have for sale.”

The team has not forgotten the importance of the human connection, however, and representatives routinely attend trade shows across North America.

Despite all this upward momentum, the company still faces its share of challenges. The pandemic’s lingering impact has resulted in price hikes for supplies, components, and other gear. At the same time, Specific Mechanical faces competition from overseas manufacturers who can offer lower prices for their systems. These lower prices, however, are more than offset by Specific Mechanical’s quality and customer service. Well-made equipment and prompt client care mean fewer maintenance and mechanical hassles in the long run.

“Price is obviously a key buying factor in any decision, including capital expenditures, but total cost of ownership is probably the most important component to consider. That’s how we differentiate from others, and we try to convey that message every day,” says MacIsaac.

If anything, the company is keen to increase the amount of business it does outside of North America. Going forward, “expansion into new markets geographically will be a focus for us,” he says.

Leask hopes that Specific Mechanical experiences “an increase in market share, particularly in the continuous column space,” over the next five years while “offering larger systems and having the capacity to build physically larger tanks and equipment.” Growth is on the horizon, and the future looks bright for this constant innovator.

The post A Brewing and Distilling Equipment Expert Continues to Innovate<p class="company">Specific Mechanical Systems </p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Headquartered in Chamblee, Georgia, Harrison Homes is an award-winning real estate development and design-build general contractor with a reputation amongst clients and competitors for being as solid as the homes they build. Founded in 2007, Harrison Homes grew their foundation from a luxury speculative homebuilder, to custom homebuilder, and then finally tackling townhome and single-family home developments. Today Harrison exclusively focuses on detached single-family and multifamily townhome neighborhoods and will deliver over 110 units in 2023.

Diverse services from qualified professionals
Harrison Homes offers developer clients a single-source solution for their residential communities. With a professional team of 10 office and field staff, Harrison can lead architectural design (or work with existing plans), interior design, site development, permitting, procurement, preconstruction planning, vertical construction, and unit sales.

Harrison’s tightknit team holds years of experience in residential construction. Their background in speculative and custom homebuilding serves their clients well, as they understand what today’s homeowners and home renters desire in each residential product. These skills guide the design of the homes, and help their clients achieve attractive rental rates and sales prices.

Access to their in-house architect save their clients time and money, as they move quickly and agilely to work through challenges, create solutions, and implement change orders through effective cross-functional team collaboration.

A well-vetted group of trade partners also ensures that Harrison can deliver units on time and on budget, with smart management of the construction schedule and subcontractor relationships.

Working with Harrison is simple. They begin with a thorough discovery of the project to understand every client’s needs, and clearly communicate next steps and deliverables through each phase of the build, making it easy for clients to stay abreast of all the important details for their development.

An impressive portfolio
Currently, Harrison is completing a build-to-rent townhome community close to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Hapeville, Georgia. Offering 68 high-end modern farmhouse rental units, 801 North Central Avenue is set to be completed by the end of Q4. Harrison was engaged as the design-build contractor and managed horizontal construction.

With options from just under 1,300 square feet to about 1,900 square feet, tenants can choose from two- to four-bedroom units and several floor plans. Complete with luxury finishes, fire pits, a dog park, and outdoor activity space, the townhomes are actively leasing and have already welcomed tenants this past summer.

Another representative project of Harrison’s was completed in 2022 in Brookhaven, Georgia. Brookhaven Commons features 26 detached single-family homes with seven stunning modern farmhouse elevations and three floor plans. The community sold out within a year and was deemed by voters of the Atlanta Parade of Homes as “Best Overall Home” and “Best Kitchen.” Brookhaven Commons also received an Obie Award recognizing the development as the “Community of the Year.”

The future of Harrison Homes
Next Harrison Homes will begin vertical construction on another exciting build-to-rent development in Northern Fulton County, delivering 74 townhomes by January of 2025. These rental townhomes are in complement to the master developer’s traditional 335 apartment units and 35,000 square feet of retail.

When asked about the company’s trajectory, President and Owner Scott Hudson had much to say about what to expect from Harrison Homes in the coming years.

“We have a lot of pride in the product that we build; we feel that we are scalable. We’re looking to gain market share and increase the number of units that we deliver each year,” says Hudson. “Georgia’s rental market is evolving, and in the southeast, there’s just not enough housing to keep up with the population growth. Throw higher interest rates on top of the inventory problem, and there’s a bigger demand for more rental housing,” he says of the shifting real estate environment forcing the industry to adapt to the changes to keep with the growth.

“Managing growth is obviously important and represents a big change [across the region],” he adds.

Consequently, 2024 brings the company’s most ambitious goal yet: building around 200 units over 12 months, and then expanding that to an annual figure of 300.

Harrison and their team are hugely enthusiastic about being in the ideal position at the ideal time. “We’re excited to be part of the continued growth of the area,” Hudson enthuses. “We’re committed to exceeding our clients’ expectations, and safely delivering quality homes for the growing Atlanta market.”

Giving back to the community they serve
Beyond striving for organizational growth, the team at Harrison Homes prioritizes giving back to the communities in which they build to also foster team unity.

For the past two years, Harrison Homes has donated and raised funds for Make-A-Wish GA, a national non-profit with local chapters serving critically ill children. Most recently, Harrison’s Director of Architecture, Jason McBryde, rappelled down 22 stories at the Buckhead Intercontinental Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, an effort that collectively raised over $90,000 to grant wishes for sick children. In the past, Harrison has also donated to The Rally Foundation, an organization devoted to research for childhood cancers, and partnered with Home Aid to demo old apartments that provide transitional shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness.

With a list of successful builds now totaling over 400 homes in Metro Atlanta and a scalable model, Harrison Homes is undeniably set up to become one of Georgia’s future legacy businesses.

The post Elevating Residential Construction: Harrison Homes Sets a Standard of Excellence Designing and Building Communities<p class="company">Harrison Homes</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Selling original equipment manufacturing (OEM) products, the company grew, bringing on additional staff to fill key roles in sales, service, engineering, and programming. Bringing on others and creating a solid leadership team saw LPS build a solid client base. Looking for a new name that sounded rugged and would fit in manufacturing, the pair came up with ‘Viking’. And Viking it was, after clearing the new name with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, appliance maker Viking, and Viking Trailers. In just a few years, the company changed its name to Viking Packaging Technologies, Inc.

In 2006, the brothers partnered with internationally known packaging equipment giant Masek based in Vlasim, Czech Republic, and their company is today known as Viking Masek Packaging Technologies.

Vision and dedication
Today, the company that began as a two-man operation has expanded to encompass hundreds of staff spread across Viking Masek’s worldwide locations including its North American headquarters in Oostburg, Wisconsin, Viking Masek Robotics and Automation headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and the European sites, including Viking Masek’s Czech facility.

Along the way, the business built and expanded its Oostburg facility, premiered innovations on the Discovery Channel, was named Sheboygan County Manufacturer of the Year in 2017, 2019, and 2020, and was awarded Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Top Workplace in 2020, 2021, 2022.

For the company and the Leonhard family, 2021 was full of highs and lows. That year saw Viking Masek make a 33,000-square-foot facility expansion and welcome the formation of Viking Masek Robotics and Automation. Sadly, it also saw the passing of Robb’s older brother Rick in July after a brief, bravely fought battle with cancer.

Serving as Executive Vice President until that time, Robb was the logical choice to take over as company President, continuing to fulfill Rick’s vision for the future, passion for the industry, and commitment to Viking Masek’s staff and customers.

“Looking back to when we started this journey 19 years ago, we were in a much different position and facing different issues, but the spirit was the same,” said Leonhard when his presidency was announced on August 21, 2021. “We were a small, driven team on a mission to bring simple, automated tote-to-pallet packaging solutions to customers around the world. Today, automation has become so crucial, but our mission remains the same.”

For Leonhard and the entire team at Viking Masek, it was crucial to carry on Rick’s legacy, keep advancing the business, and strengthen the company’s involvement in the community.

“One of the things Rick and I were passionate about was giving back, being really involved and a crucial part of the community,” says Leonhard. This included re-inventing the company’s café-themed lunchroom as a European pub, naming it in Rick’s honor, and using it as a venue for a free Thanksgiving meal for the less fortunate. “Rick was very passionate about that, and it’s something we continue to do.”

Diverse clients
Offering packaging solutions for virtually any industry, Viking Masek works with customers every step of the way to ensure success. If products are dusty, wet, heavy, or even sticky, the experienced team at Viking Masek is there to offer machines, service, and solutions custom-made to the needs of every client in food and beverage, health and medical, and non-food product sectors.

Just some of the products packaged with the company’s cutting-edge equipment include coffee, cheese, candy, individual quick frozen (IQF) items, cereals, nuts and snacks, pasta, beans and rice, pet food and treats, cannabis, pills and capsules, medical testing kits, and more. The California-based Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is one valued customer, and as Leonhard describes, “That’s a market we’ve focused on since day one. We provide a lot of automated machinery lines to regional coffee roasters, from very small to very large, for packaging ground coffee, whole bean coffee, flavored coffee, and more. We love the coffee industry.”

Able to pivot quickly to meet market demands, “During COVID, our machines were used very heavily to package COVID test kits, along with other test kits,” he explains. “We sold a lot of machines for packing COVID test kits.”

Highly knowledgeable about the packaging industry, Viking Masek advises its customers on the best equipment for their needs. Coffee and tea, for example, can be packaged through Vertical Form Fill Seal (VFFS) machines, Flat Bottom, Quad Seal, Premade Bags, Stick Pack Equipment, or Bag-in-Bag VFFS Machines.

For cheese packaging, the company’s breadth of machines includes the Viking-8SD-235, the VFFS Solitaire, the VFFS Velocity, and more. Packing cheese through intermittent and continuous motion, Viking Masek’s line of VFFS Machines can package everything from small, consumer-sized, three-side seal bags with zippers to large pillow bags intended for restaurants and food service customers.

For the first-timer
As packaging industry experts, the Viking Masek team works with both longstanding customers and new ones looking to buy their first automated lines. Realizing that purchasing automated packaging machines is a big decision and a big investment, the company maintains an informative “First-Time Buyer” FAQ section on its website. “To help customers with the buying process, Viking Masek has developed an extensive library of resources for first time buyers including downloadable PDFs: https://vikingmasek.com/packaging-machine-resources/first-time-buyers.

In the past decade, the company has partnered with clients embarking on their automation journey much earlier in the process than was the case previously, often in the pre-construction stages. Years ago, companies would call up asking for a vertical bagger; today, Viking Masek is doing much more full-line automation and becoming involved in the early stages of everything from plant design to room layout.

Becoming a one-stop shop was both intentional and driven by market demand. Building on years of combined experience, Viking Masek has the talent, technology, and skills needed to latch onto the process at the start and make valuable contributions through to the very end.

This approach includes not only engineering, design, programming, and automation, but also service, parts, and preventative maintenance packages. All pre-owned equipment sold through Viking Masek undergoes a minimum 25-point maintenance and safety check. Thoroughly inspected by the company’s certified technicians, all used equipment “is certified to perform to Viking Masek’s exacting standards.” And just like new pieces, pre-owned equipment can be modified to suit specific customer needs.

Automation for all
In the future, Viking Masek will continue its quality work with clients of all sizes—from those who need multiple lines running to those who need just one. And of course, the company will continue to develop new innovations. Its fast Twin Velocity VFFS machine is a unique offering, rated at over 500 bags per minute. First unveiled at the Pack Expo show last year, this September saw the company bring the popular machine back for this year’s show in Las Vegas.

“The businesses we deal with all require automation, automation, automation,” Leonhard emphasizes. “That’s been good for us because we’ve been ahead of the curve. We can do the whole thing—supplying that tote-to-pallet, fully automated line instead of just little pieces—so we’re a one-stop shop for customers who need automation,” he says. “Right now in the industry, automation is king. Everyone needs to automate because employees are getting harder and harder to find.”

At present, the company’s Robotics and Automation Division is exploring other areas, such as food preparation machines. And even though the company keeps growing, it continues to uphold its foundational values.

“We have been very fortunate and blessed. We started as a family organization, and we’re still a family organization. We view our employees and teammates as family, and we invest in them. Some people just say that, but It’s important to us and we do it. Our machinery is only going to be as good as the people who design it, maintain it, train on it. Our machinery has come a long way since the beginning, and that’s a testament to the talent, determination, and drive for excellence of our people.”

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