A M King, an integrated Design-Build firm, is proud to announce the completion of the first baking facility for London-based Bakkavor in the United States. A ribbon cutting was held on October 18 for the new state-of-the-art bakery at the Ridge Creek West Industrial Park at the intersection of Highway 49 and Western Ridge Road. The facility is now supplying prepared foods to local and regional grocery chains.

The grand opening event was well attended by Bakkavor’s Board of Directors and various employees, as well as Alma Adams, congresswoman of North Carolina’s 12^th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. A M King’s president Brian King was present at the event, along with the Design-Build team responsible for the project’s successful on-time completion.

Bakkavor Group is an international supplier of fresh prepared foods in four product categories: meals, salads, desserts, bread and pizza. The company has operations in the U.S., China and Spain; the focus in the U.S. is on the fast-growing fresh prepared food retail market specializing in meals, meal salads, dips, soups and sauces. The new bakery in Charlotte, modeled similarly to Bakkavor’s baking facility in England, will produce artisan bread products topped with spices, cheeses, and select meat toppings (bacon and pepperoni).  The facility is located just five minutes from the company’s North American headquarters off Westinghouse Boulevard.

The multi-phased, fully integrated Design-Build upfit included mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, all production area interiors (including a separate production employee entrance and locker room) and coordination of equipment installation.

The facility upholds the most stringent food safety and sanitary design standards. All mechanical and electrical installations within the food safety zones were installed with stainless steel. All wall protection within the food safety zones is fully antimicrobial with fused seams. The project was completed with full LED lighting and all equipment has Variable Frequency Drives (VFD’s) for energy consumption. The mechanical systems were installed with double hot loops to all hot water points of use to offer water savings. The hot water system was also designed with parallel on demand natural gas boilers to avoid using a hot water tank, which will ultimately create significant cost savings for the client. 

This project had a very aggressive overall schedule duration including design, permitting and construction durations. A qualification-based selection process was utilized to offer an integrated Design-Build approach with all aspects of the project. “The dynamic schedule and detailed equipment installations with vendors from numerous different countries could not have been completed without the highly involved team,” says George Lehnerer, A M King business unit leader. “The interactions with A M King, Bakkavor and all the Design-Build subcontractors on this project made it successful in all aspects.”