When picking your food plant’s design, you want to determine how this choice will help your business thrive. Your business plan should be made around the kind and number of goods you plant the facility to produce. This plan should be able to help you choose the right facility site. Also, you want to work with Stendel + Reich food plant architects who can help you make an informed decision. They will walk you through the design factors you should consider before you choose a site.
Important Factors to Consider
The location of your food manufacturing plant will significantly affect the growth of your business. So, you want to make an informed choice. When picking a food plant site, it’s important to take into account the following factors:
- Local geography. Extra land may be required for a site, depending on local conditions like drainage, topography, and governmental regulations.
- Everyday operations. You will have to decide whether your facility requires rail or interstate access. This depends on the delivery of raw ingredients, distribution of finished products, and internal movement of materials.
- Utility and water costs. A utility matrix can estimate your plant’s utility requirements according to its square footage. You want your facility to have access to adequate energy and water resources.
- Distance to resources. Picking a strategic plant location can help reduce total transportation costs. To choose the right facility site, identify the locations of your target customers, raw material sources, and distribution centers.
Other Factors to Consider
To ensure you choose the ideal site for your food processing facility, you should also take into consideration the following:
- Business environment. You will want to pick a site that has a surrounding community that supports the growth of your business. When making a choice, consider property and state taxes as well as incentive packages offered by municipalities and states.
- Labor costs and quality. Examine the current and projected wages to know how picking a plant site will impact your operational costs. Also, look into the availability of skilled employees in the surrounding area. Your new facility can only succeed if it is run by qualified personnel.
- Retrofitting. Constructing a new food plant takes away significant time and attention from your current operations. Also, you may need to have a new facility up and running as soon as possible. in such cases, expanding or retrofitting an existing facility may be your best option. In general, this is more affordable and can be finished more quickly than building a new facility.
