KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — ARCO Design/Build hired Brian Shoop as director of process engineering for its food and beverage business, expanding the contractor’s ability to oversee manufacturing projects from production-system design through construction.
Shoop joins ARCO from Gray, where he served as vice president and led the company’s process engineering practice. He has worked in the industry for 16 years, focusing on food manufacturing facilities, production processes, equipment longevity and contamination prevention.
The appointment supports ARCO’s push beyond cold-storage construction and further into the plants where food and beverage products are manufactured and processed.
ARCO has spent more than 30 years building facilities used to store and distribute food. The company is now adding in-house process engineering as it seeks greater control over project schedules, equipment planning and the transition from facility design to production.
Shoop’s role will include integrating process requirements with architectural, engineering and construction work. That model is intended to reduce the number of firms involved in a project and create a single point of responsibility for manufacturers.
“In food and beverage, time is everything,” Shoop stated. “Behind every facility is a product launch, a retail commitment, a customer counting on capacity coming online.”
He added that incorporating process design into ARCO’s construction model could shorten the path from concept to production compared with projects that separate engineering and building responsibilities.
ARCO President Aaron Weir characterized the hire as a way to place production expertise within the same organization responsible for constructing the facility.
Shoop specializes in asset lifecycle management, including facility and equipment design intended to extend operating life, protect structural systems and reduce contamination risks over the life of a plant.
He is scheduled to participate in a panel on equipment and facility longevity at the International Association for Food Protection’s annual meeting, which runs July 26 through July 29 in New Orleans.
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