CONYERS, GA (August 23, 2018) – Unified Brands, a leading manufacturer of foodservice equipment, announced that it will make significant investments to its manufacturing, engineering and support facilities later this year and throughout 2019. Manufacturing capacity will increase as the company executes plans to create three centers of excellence, each with its own special focus.
The most significant investment impacts the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the company will open a new manufacturing facility in the Ceres Industrial Park, bringing 425 jobs to the local community.
“Mississippians are hard workers who take pride in a job well done,” said Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, “as evidenced by Unified Brands’ decision to grow its operations in our state and create hundreds of new jobs in Warren County. Vicksburg has enjoyed recent economic growth, and this exciting announcement continues that momentum.”
Operations in Pryor, Oklahoma, will begin to transition to the new manufacturing facility effective immediately; operations in Byram, Mississippi, will transition to Vicksburg over the next year. The new facility will specialize in efficient production of the company’s standard and configured products.
Investments will also be made to enhance manufacturing and operations in the Weidman, Michigan, facility, which will specialize in differentiated custom-engineered products. The Farwell, Michigan, operations team will transition to the upgraded Weidman facility.
Corporate headquarters will remain in Conyers, Georgia, where the company emphasizes industry collaboration, customer engagement, and training in its world-class culinary training center.
“The new facility in Vicksburg, along with the investments in Weidman, will put us in a great position to improve the work environment for our employees, increase operational efficiencies, and provide a foundation for long-term growth,” said Dave Herring, president of Unified Brands. “It also centralizes our production, engineering, office, and support staff to three centers of excellence, allowing us to better serve our customers, while growing our overall capacity to meet industry needs.”
The manufacturing restructure is not expected to affect total employee headcount, product inventory, or manufacturing lead times.
About Unified Brands:
Unified Brands and its Groen, CapKold, Randell, Avtec, A la Cart, and Power Soak product lines have leading industry positions in cooking equipment, custom and standard refrigeration, continuous motion ware washing systems, conveyors, ventilation, utility distribution, cook-chill, and meal delivery systems. Unified Brands has operations in Michigan and Mississippi.
