In April, a new rendering plant came on line in Alma, GA, which is owned and operated by Kenosha Beef International, a long-standing family run company with a rendering plant in Kenosha, WI. When Kenosha purchased Lee Meats in Georgia, President Charles Vignieri immediately looked at building a protein facility to handle their future needs of possible expansion in Georgia.
One of the first things Vignieri knew the plant needed was an individual to take the reins of the rendering operation and sales for both plants and also oversee the construction of the Georgia facility. For this job he hired John Gagliardi with whom he had had a relationship years back when Gagliardi was with Anderson and Milwaukee Tallow.
Gagliardi was given the task of developing a new facility that would meet the needs of the meat processing plant, including future expansions, while keeping the cost of construction down to a minimum and using the best available technology. Gagliardi took his concept to Chip Tice, Millpoint Industries, Inc. The two companies worked together, constructing a new plant capable of doing all of the things the Vignieri’s wanted to accomplish, at a fraction of the cost it would normally take to build a new plant.
With the current markets being what they are and the prices of fuel being what it is, to build a new facility, prove the pay back, and come in on budget was quite a load to carry. By utilizing good available used equipment and reconditioning some used pieces, the rendering company saved in excess of $282,700. By utilizing Millpoint Millwrights and staff for installation and engineering, the company saved another $97,000, based on local and open market pricing.
The rendering plant, known as Protein Processors, operates as efficiently as possible, creating a facility that only requires two to three people a shift to operate and maintain. A full potable hot water supply system from the rendering plant to the processing plant was incorporated into the project to cut the cost of hot water needed by the processing plant. The savings is estimated to be in excess of $150,000 a year.
A full programmable logic control system was incorporated that operates automatically or manually on any piece of equipment. All equipment has soft start units and highly efficient motors that save energy. The initial outlay was one-fifth more, but by the end of the year, the plant will have saved an additional $36,000 above the extra cost of the motors.
Also installed were reconstructed Millpoint scrubber towers that scrub more air with a smaller tower that require less horsepower to operate, again translating into energy savings. The new system will also help the plant evaporate some of their wastewater, thus decreasing the sewage surcharges they will have to pay to the city.
Newsline - June 2001 Render