Award-Winning Expansion to Increase Food Supply

After partnering with Gray on the company’s first greenfield operation—a state-of-the-art production facility in Coldwater, Michigan—the customer again selected Gray to design and build the expansion to its smoked pork processing operation in Hatfield, PA. The 308,000 s.f. facility sits on a 32-acre plot on the Hatfield campus and increases production efficiency and capacity to 6,000 pounds per hour—good for 100 million pounds of cooked and smoked meat products per year.

In addition to managing the facility’s design and construction, Gray provided extensive process & packaging systems design and engineering for multiple raw and ready-to-eat meat products. Equipment services included specification, bidding, and award for integrated line layouts and MEP systems, followed by procurement and field installation support. Services and support to the customer’s processes covered a wide range of subsystems, including brine making, injection, massaging, stuffing, smoking/cooking, chilling, slicing, cubing, and primary packaging formats.

The new operation’s fully hygienic design separates incoming raw ingredients from finished ready-to-eat products and includes a 4,800-ton ammonia refrigeration system and an isolated viewing corridor for customers of the RTE process lines. A supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system provides unprecedented insight into production, while maintenance service rails, weigh-in motion conveyor, and packaging system keep the facility’s nine product lines functioning effectively at every stage of the process.

As demand for its products surpassed record levels, Clemens turned once again to Gray as a trusted partner, selecting the company to design and build an RTE expansion and brownfield upfit at its main facility in Hatfield. Gray’s scope for the project involves demolition of existing plant areas and retrofitting vacant space, which includes the installation of a new roof over an existing roof to facilitate a smooth demolition process. Gray’s scope also includes design and construction of additional production space and process lines for the customer’s new precooked bacon bits and bacon strips, an expansion to Clemens’ precooked sausage line, and an expansion of the customer’s employee parking.

One of the primary challenges for the project was sequencing work to allow the facility to remain fully operational during all phases of construction. Gray project and site management engaged early with suppliers for long-lead items and carefully planned critical path items to minimize disruption to operations.