Parker Products, a Fort Worth-based provider of inclusions and other specialty ingredients for the baking, dairy, beverage, confectionery, foodservice, and RTE and snack industries, held a grand opening ceremony for its new manufacturing facility on April 18.
“Everyone at Parker is very excited about the opening of our new facility, and we are proud of how it has come together,” said Shon Essex, executive vice president. “We began planning for the facility more than seven years ago and no detail has been overlooked. We went above and beyond the industry standard in plant design to create a world-class facility that is second to none.”
Parker Products was founded in Fort Worth in 1926 by I.C. Parker, creator of the “Drumstick” novelty ice cream treat. The company makes confectionary ingredients used in foods and beverages. Among the products are pralines, candy coatings, clusters, liquid flavors and candies. Customers include Starbucks and Dot Foods.
With three times the capacity of Parker Products’ previous location, the new 90,000-square-foot facility houses all of the company’s operations and allows for new processes to maintain the quality Parker Products while further improving efficiency. For example, real-time quality control checks and overall equipment effectiveness feedback is now available digitally from the production lines. Additionally, each production room in the new facility features a separate air handling system to prevent cross contamination.
“Along with quality, top priorities for our new facility were efficiency and waste reduction,” said Greg Hodder, president. “I’m proud to say that the new location features many green initiatives.”
Examples of the facility’s eco-friendly features include LED light systems with motion control, stainless insulated metal panels, an ammonia water chill system, and humidity control.
The plant is located at 3001 Strawn Drive.
Parker Products has committed to invest $17.5 million in real and business personal property investment by the end of 2017 in the project. The company would retain 100 full-time employees and create 30 new full-time jobs as part of the consolidation. The City of Fort Worth approved a 10-year, 50 percent tax abatement on real and business personal property, valued at $639,000.
“The new facility is a collaboration among Emergent Construction Technologies, Elements of Architecture, the City of Fort Worth, the HWH Group, and Todd Hubbard with NAI Real Estate,” Hodder said in an earlier FWBP report.