The winner of the 19th annual "New Plant of the Year" competition, sponsored by Food Engineering Magazine, is this $25 million coffee roasting facility designed, engineered and constructed by Austin AECOM. The highly automated plant located in Fort Worth, Texas, is owned by Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee, Inc., Canada’s top private-brand coffee supplier.
To meet anticipated production requirements as a result of a growing demand for its products, Mother Parkers needed to build a new roasting and distribution facility in a short amount of time.
Mother Parkers selected Austin AECOM’s Facility Location Group to conduct a study to determine the best location for the proposed facility. After thoroughly analyzing more than 20 states — taking into consideration critical factors such as transportation, utilities, labor and taxes — the group pinpointed Fort Worth, Texas. Not only is Fort Worth a transportation hub, but Texas ports are highly efficient in importing green coffee. These location attributes offer Mother Parkers the flexibility it needs to expand its U.S. market as demand for its products grows.
After identifying a location, Austin AECOM was then selected to design, engineer and construct the roasting and distribution plant under a design-build contract. The new Fort Worth facility complements Mother Parkers’ existing operations in Mississauga and Ajax, Ontario; Montreal; Quebec; and Amherst, New York.
The first phase of the project consisted of a 100,000-sq-ft facility for roasting, packaging and distributing whole bean and ground coffee. The facility was operational nine months after initial construction began, despite Texas rainstorms and several construction challenges. Up to five different erection and construction crews worked together to keep the aggressive schedule on track.
The plant has the capacity to produce more than 20 million pounds of coffee per year, with the flexibility to produce 80 million pounds in the future. Austin AECOM designed the facility to allow Mother Parkers to install additional roasting and grinding equipment without major structural changes and with minimal disruption to operations. |
