Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal — DelMarVa — February 10 - 23, 2012 — 13A
www.marejournal.com
D EL M AR V A
WhiteWave turns to a partnership of Shenandoah Valley companies InterChange Group teams up with Friendship Industries
H
ARRISONBURG, VA — A research team at Colorado-based White-
“we are a flex-force or labor advantage to them,” Hook says, offering skilled workers and a fixed-unit cost. In addition to the WhiteWave contract, the Harrisonburg facility regularly performs repackaging for Wal-Mart dis- tribution centers and is the manufacturer for a New Zea- land company that sells retract- able blinds. Among its other jobs are assembling survival packs for the U.S. Air Force and providing quality assurance for E-Z Pass transponder systems for the Puerto Rico Hwy. and Transportation Authority. ■
us down. I’m not sure we could go out on the street and find anyone who could manage it as well as they have.” Friendship Industries em ploys approximately 130 people. Workers are grouped by ability and often work independently alongside colleagues without disabilities. “We’ve created an integrated work environment that allows for a good transition to other [employment],” said president George Homan II. Friendship Industries was not immune to the recent re- cession, but work has begun to pick up. For many companies,
Wave Foods discovered that some coffee drinkers who shop in bulk were having trouble using its three-pack of dairy creamers in a timely manner. Looking for a solution, White- Wave turned to a partnership of Shenandoah Valley companies to create smaller packages for distribution to wholesale clubs along the East Coast. InterChange Group, a ware- housing and logistics firm, teamed up with Friendship In- dustries, a local provider of em- ployment and job training for people with disabilities. Friend- ship Industries employees now repackage, label and stack the creamers inside InterChange’s 64,000 s/f refrigerated facility in Harrisonburg. “InterChange had the lo- gistics, the warehousing and the refrigeration, but they didn’t have the packaging ex- pertise and the work force to accomplish the task,” said Tom Hook, Friendship Industries’ chief operating officer. In late 2009, the two companies went to WhiteWave and proposed a joint venture, with each invest- ing in the needed equipment and resources. Food manufacturers like WhiteWave are constantly looking for innovative ways to increase the appeal of their products, Hook says. “We have a lot of experience, and we un- derstand the customer’s need for quick turnaround and a high-quality package,” he adds. The nonprofit has been packag- ing products for Fortune 500 companies and the federal gov- ernment for more 40 years. Despite its nonprofit status, Friendship Industries must function as a business, Hook says, including competing with for-profit companies for con- tracts. The partnership with InterChange “aligns perfectly with our mission of provid- ing dignified employment to persons with disabilities, and it allows us the opportunity to expand into the refrigerated packaging arena,” Hook says. “Our focus has always been a high-volume, truckload-in, truckload-out [operation],” said Keith VanBenschoten, who manages InterChange’s Har- risonburg operations. “But this is detailed work, with product repackaging, relabeling and restacking. Without them, administratively, it would bog
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