May 27, 2010

FEATURE | Steel

Chapman’s Ice Cream factory rises from the ashes

PETER KENTER

correspondent

The 85,000-square-foot Chapman’s Ice Cream factory in Markdale, Ont. burned down last September in a fire started by a welder’s torch.

But Canada’s largest independent ice cream producer is making a comeback with a brand new steel facility as part of a revival campaign the family-owned business has dubbed Project Phoenix.

The business has been in operation since 1973 when David and Penny Chapman purchased a century-old creamery, which was zoned for ice cream production. Since then, the business had grown to cover an entire city block. The fire, however, destroyed all but a few containers of ice cream found frozen in cold storage, and the damaged building was razed.

Instead of calling it quits, the Chapman family announced, hours after the fire, that they would rebuild.

Workers quickly converted a newly built steel-framed dry warehouse into a mini-production facility, using equipment purchased at auction in Florida. Smaller ice cream producers have helped pick up production slack as construction of the new steel-framed facility, almost twice as large as the previous plant, commences.

SHANNON STEEL INC.

The Chapman’s Ice Cream factory in Markdale, Ontario is on track to open in September this year.

The construction project broke ground in mid-November of last year, with Chapman family members taking the role of general contractor.

“It was important for [CEO] David Chapman and I to be personally engaged from start to finish and be part of the decision and selection process,” says Joe Jacobs, Chapman’s vice-president of operations. “We hold weekly meetings with all subcontractors and design engineers to review progress and expectations.”

The Chapmans were committed to rebuilding in Markdale, located about a two-hour drive northwest of Toronto. The plant employs more than 300 workers in a community of about 1,400, so much of the town’s economy relies on the ice cream enterprise.

The 20-acre building site is located just a few blocks away from the original plant on land owned by the Chapmans.

“We were faced with either rebuilding at our previous site or building on green field,” says Chapman. “Only after a thorough review of expectations and understanding some of the challenges, we decided to build on green field.”

Chapman says the company chose a steel-framed building because of the structural support it offers and because of the speed of steel construction. “The steel structure is designed to support our receiving, processing, production and storage requirements,” he says. “Additional support was required to accommodate rooftop evaporator condensers and HVAC units.”

The steel frame will largely support insulated polyurethane exterior panels, with both glass curtain wall and ribbon windows designated for the front, main and employee entrances.

Construction challenges to date included a cold spell that cut into efforts to build the plant’s foundations.

“Trying to form and pour footings and foundations during a Grey County winter is always a challenge,” says Chapman.

“We invested in insulated blankets, portable tents and heating coils to help temper the ground. Once the building location was determined we were surprised to learn that the storm sewer piping cut across the east end of the building. We mobilized a team to relocate the storm sewer over a few weeks. The Village of Markdale was unable to accommodate our fire protection water needs due to water pressure and volume restrictions, so the Chapmans were forced to build their own self-contained water reservoir and pump house to service the fire sprinklers for both the new building and mini-plant.”

Full-out ice cream production must start as soon as possible in order to maintain market share. The company hopes to have all construction completed this summer so ice cream production can resume in September.

“At the very least it is our expectation that ice cream mix processing can commence no later than September 4th,” says Chapman. “The ice cream mix will be transported to our mini-production plant—the converted dry warehouse building. The introduction of production lines to our new building will follow shortly after.”

The company plans to use the converted warehouse as a dedicated production facility for ice cream containing nuts, keeping it separate from the main production building, which is designated, nut-free.

“The schedule is definitely the challenge,” says Mike Hall, General Manager of Shannon Steel Inc. of Orangeville, the project’s steel sub-contractor. “As soon as the drawings are ready we’re putting them straight through the shop and out to the construction site. People are surprised at how much of the building has gone up in the past three weeks.”

The biggest surprise for Hall is the interest people are showing in the job.

“It’s not just the children of our employees who are interested,” he says. “Everybody wants to talk about the Chapman’s Ice Cream job—they’ve all been following the story.”

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