Food and Beverage

Food Processing

Key Ingredient: Efficiency

New product lines. Automation. Vertical expansions. Commissary facilities. Trends and challenges in the food processing industry require innovative facility solutions and a design, engineering and construction partner who’s responsive, experienced and efficient.

Let The Austin Company be that partner. Austin has been an innovative leader in the food, beverage and consumer products industries since the early 1900’s.

Today, Austin’s team is comprised of professionals who have worked in the food production industry. Each brings expertise to our design, engineering and construction solutions for manufacturers of baked goods and snacks, confectionary, ready-to-eat products, meat and poultry, frozen foods and beverages. Our industry expertise and focus on fast-track projects allow clients to experience little to no down time or lost production during facility expansion, construction or relocation.

Our global experience includes:

• Production and packaging plants
• Refrigeration systems
• Automated distribution and bulk storage warehouses
• Research laboratories
• Wastewater treatment systems

Built into the design of every project is safety related to: construction, food and people. Austin understands the importance of safety, as well as the precision and complexity of hygienic facilities in this industry. We also recognize the need to complete projects on-time and within budget – and our team designs efficiencies into the plants so those goals are achieved.

Baking & Snack

Integrated Approach to the Baking and Snack Industry

The Austin Company’s experience extends well beyond decades of designing and constructing baking and snack food processing facilities. Austin’s professionals are involved at the Board level at BEMA, ISB and IBIE, collaborating with committees as standards are set for facilities and equipment.

Our baking and snack industry experts are professional engineering and operations managers—including professionals who work closely with national and international baking equipment associations and equipment manufacturers—providing unique insight from an experienced, hands-on perspective. They enter projects knowing the processes, equipment and and how to precisely design and build facilities that meet the industry’s highest standards. They incorporate trends, including mezzanine levels for packaging, ingredient delivery automation, and vertical proofing systems into those designs.

It is this expertise that we bring to the table for every baking and snack facility project.

Austin addresses the complete needs of each baking and snack food production facility project, including:

• Fully baked, frozen products, are becoming more popular and we provide complete refrigeration design.
• Speed of construction is always a project driver and Austin’s lean design and construction techniques support accelerated schedules.
• Quality of construction is an increasing challenge due to labor shortages and fewer young people entering the building trades. We address this through on-site quality programs.

Beverage

Innovation and Experience on Tap

Competition is fierce and margins are thin in the beverage industry. Once a new product is approved for production, it must get to market—fast. That means fast-tracking required capital projects at your facilities.

It is innovation that drives success in the beverage industry. Developing healthier drinks, flavored waters, craft brewery products, smaller cans and creative packaging are some of the challenges beverage makers face to stay ahead of the competition.

To The Austin Company, this means incorporating efficiency, expertise – and innovation – into the engineering and construction of a beverage manufacturing plant that is reliable, food safe and flexible.

Austin brings more to the table than design and constructing solutions. We bring innovation through our fully-integrated team; it’s what sets us apart. It’s what has made us a leader in the beverage industry for over 140 years.

Austin’s experience in the beverage manufacturing industry includes expertise in process piping, instrumentation, controls, refrigeration, packaging and wastewater treatment for:

• Production and packaging plants
• Automated distribution and bulk storage warehouses
• Research laboratories
• Distribution centers

Confectionary

Exact Measures of Experience and Expertise

It’s in the consistency of following a unique recipe that sets your product apart. Every ingredient is measured precisely; each step in the process is exact. Dedication to every detail ensures success, batch after batch, line after line.

The Austin Company understands the special nature of the confectionary industry. Decade after decade, we follow a recipe for efficient design-build projects that allow confectionary companies to expand and succeed.

Our expertise and experience extend beyond designing and building processing facilities. We know confectionary equipment and the processes – from starch moguls and the circulation of liquid chocolate, to cooling tunnels and high-speed custom packaging machines.

We know the industry trends – the need for increased automation and for more attractive, brighter work areas that help recruit and retain employees.

We know the challenges you face such as new products and the rush to market; plant expansions that must not interrupt current production; and unwavering adherence to food safety.

Austin’s fully integrated team uses a proven approach, The Austin Method. Beginning with preliminary design, followed by preliminary engineering, then detailed engineering and construction, this proven approach ensures we do it right the first time and could shave months off the schedule for a large manufacturing plant.

Austin’s subject matter exerts provide unique insights into our confectionary industry projects. Insight gained from many years working in the industry as operations, engineering and food safety leaders.

Meat & Poultry

Deep Industry Knowledge for Innovative Facility Solutions

For every expansion or greenfield processing plant project, our fully integrated team plans for efficiency, aiming to complete the facility on time and within budget.

In addition, Austin adds an additional focus to projects in this unique industry: to design and build facilities where employees go home in a much better frame of mind.

To do this, The Austin Company applies more than 140 years of design and engineering and construction expertise. Our team draws from hands-on meat and poultry processing experience and a broad knowledge of Federal, state and local food safety regulations as we tailor solutions for you.

Decade after decade, Austin has been an industry leader – not simply because we excel at the design-build of meat and poultry processing facilities, but because we’ve lived within the industry. We know the trends and challenges and develop solutions based on that expertise.

Austin brings deep knowledge and experience to every project. Our team members are up-to-date on USDA, FSMA, Food Safety and GMP standards. Quality and safety are among our company’s core principles and we ensure those are incorporated into every project.

Our team understands how technology continually transforms the industry, aiming to reduce strenuous tasks through robotics and automation. We are familiar with – and can integrate and install – the processing equipment that can help lower your costs and reduce employee injuries.

We recognize this industry’s struggle to attract and retain employees – especially the need for more sophisticated workers who have the capability to handle automation. In addition to designing and building high-quality, safe processing facilities, Austin can assist with site location services that place your new facility where a local workforce is trained to meet your needs.

Austin is more than your design-build partner. We are part of your organization, translating deep industry knowledge into flexible, innovative solutions.