ORRVILLE: One Strawberry Lane — the world headquarters of the J.M. Smucker Co. — is now conveying a bold, modern message about the growing food company it houses.
The owner of Folgers coffee, Smucker jams and jellies and Jif and Pillsbury products recently finished moving into a new and expanded headquarters building at its Orrville campus.
The brick and glass structure centers around a dramatic, natural light-filled four-story atrium and lobby. The lobby features a decorative water wall, two flat-screen TV walls featuring Smucker products and potted trees with the company’s “basic beliefs” inscribed in the planters.
“We feel very fortunate to be able to make this investment in our community in tough economic times,” said Smucker CEO Richard Smucker in an interview with the Beacon Journal. “We started here and here’s where we’re going to stay.”
Officials declined to disclose the cost of the project except to say it was the most significant investment in company history.
Smucker is also embarking on building a new plant in Orrville and has said that investment is $150 million.
The lobby is the “showpiece” of the building, said spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher. “We wanted people to come in here and have a sense of the company.”
Crews broke ground for the new 153,000 square-foot building in October 2009 and employees began moving in May.
It’s the first time in 2 › years all Akron-area employees are back on one campus, said Badertscher. The last of the employees to rejoin the Orrville setting in recent weeks were about 160 who had worked in Fairlawn since early 2009 because there was no room for them in Orrville.
About 70 new people who transferred from the coffee, oils and baking teams and had been in Cincinnati before Smucker purchased Folgers in 2008 also work in the new headquarters.
The new headquarters is three buildings connected into one. Former structures called the “Founders Building” and “Legacy Building” are all connected, including one that goes over a street.
All buildings were remodeled with the idea of having no sense of differences from one building to another, said Brian Mackey, corporate facilities manager.
“We wanted to create a sense of community where employees can be proud to gather, work and learn from one another in an environment that facilitates communication and culture,” said Badertscher.
The new buildings have small rooms with glass windows called “huddle rooms,” which are not reserved and are designed for meetings and gathering places for ideas.
Snack areas — complete with some free Smucker products — dot the office buildings for employees. A one-mile fitness trail was installed around the campus and a fitness center is in the long-term plans, said Badertscher. A new health and wellness center, with a nurse practitioner, also opened on campus this summer.
The headquarters now houses about 1,500 — 1,150 in offices and 350 manufacturing plant employees. Those numbers fluctuate and because visitors are always on campus, there can easily be 2,000 people at the complex on a given day, said Badertscher.
The new addition nearly doubles the office space on campus, going from 260,000 square feet to 465,000.
Badertscher said with all of the construction that happened on campus — the new building is in a former parking lot — the company planted two new trees for every one that needed to be taken down. The construction was built in line with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Rating System — or its more common name, LEED certification. The Renewal Building received LEED certification several years ago.
The company also built a covered walkway from the new building out to the parking lot, with an ice-melt system in the sidewalks. The same system is also on the front sidewalks of the building.
“It cuts down on the shoveling and salting,” said Mackey.
The Renewal Building, which houses an employee cafeteria, expanded that area to seat 350. The cafeteria serves about 800 daily with 36 full-time kitchen employees and six dedicated to special catering. The building will also get an additional 12 conference rooms.
Another facility called the “Discovery Building” also got an addition, with an expanded sensory department containing taste panel booths and team space.
The building envelope is already up for the new manufacturing plant, which will begin its first production in the late spring of 2012 with full operation by late 2013, said Badertscher. The new 460,000 square-foot plant will replace a 60-year-old, 150,000 square-foot facility, which will be repurposed with some of it razed, she said. The plant will continue to produce fruit spreads and ice cream toppings.
Production capabilities at the new plant will double, said Badertscher. There will be about 240 hourly and 30 salaried workers at the new plant, down from 300 hourly and 45 salaried. About 75 positions are being phased out through attrition and early retirement, Badertscher said.
The plant will have a mix of new and existing equipment. “It will be a state-of-the-art facility,” she said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty
