Regional manufacturers, employers receive MAEA Excellence Awards

POTTSVILLE — The NEPA Manufacturers and Employers Association (MAEA) held its Night of Celebration to honor the winners of the MAEA Excellence Awards on Wednesday at the Mt. Valley Clubhouse.

Companies from six different counties were honored at the event from as far north as Northern Susquehanna County and south as Lehigh Valley.

Award recipients were recognized by MAEA, several legislators, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, Schuylkill County Commissioners, Columbia County Commissioners, and Lackawanna County Commissioners.

Award recipients are:

• Hydro Extrusion North America LLC, Manufacturer Community Involvement award.

Hydro Extrusion North America, LLC donates and volunteers for a vast variety of community organizations.

Hydro employees recycle aluminum and donate the proceeds to Hillside SPCA. In addition, they collect pet food, blankets, and treats for the pet shelter and support their fundraisers.

Hydro supports many organizations including the United Way, BIGS, St. Joseph’s Center for Special Learning, Helping Harvest, American Cancer Society, Schuylkill County Fair, MDA, SKIP, and more.

Hydro Extrusion is committed to helping local school programs by purchasing equipment, donating towards improvements, sponsoring programs, and fundraisers. Hydro Extrusion encourages students to grow by providing scholarships for college and trade school enrollment.

In addition, they conduct clothing drives, donate food, feed the hungry and donate gift cards to non-profit organizations. The Hydro employees volunteer their time and financially support local charities and organizations.

• Zimmerman Machine Inc., Manufacturer Process Improvement Small Business award.

Zimmerman Machine, Inc. added two brand new CNC machines to their shop floor. The first being a Proto Trak, 2470 RX CNC lathe. This Machine allows them to do larger size and smaller lot sizes of parts that are simple to program and setup at the machine using the innovative RX style control offered by the machine tool manufacturer. This machine added additional CNC turning capacity to their Lathe department. The second new machine added is a DN Solutions horizontal milling machine, model number NHP-5000, with a 6-pool rotary pallet system. This has allowed them to begin lights-out production. They now have the ability to increase production throughout off-hours. Zimmerman Machine, Inc. can set up the machine to run multiple different jobs throughout the night.

It also goes without saying that they would not have been able to grow like they have without their employees. Zimmerman Machine, Inc. employees troubleshoot and problem-solve difficult jobs. They are able to get the work done above and beyond what their customers are looking for. They adapt to programming and running new machines (including the most recent ones) and are always willing to learn the new technology in order to complete the job.

• Diaz Manufacturing LLC, Manufacturer Process Improvement award.

Diaz Manufacturing, LLC (“Diaz”) is a manufacturer of specialty millwork products, consisting primarily of solid hard wood doors and specialty moldings. Diaz like many domestic companies operated at full capacity during 2021 and 2022 in order to meet consumer demand. The high level of productivity left no opportunity for equipment replacement and changeovers, even if the equipment was readily available. With business volumes returning to normal levels in 2023, the management of Diaz was able to begin an ambitious project to replace the majority of its production equipment with modern state of the art equipment specifically designed to meet its production requirements. Detailed attention was given to optimization of raw material usage, employee safety and productivity and the enhancement of product quality.

The entire production process inclusive of computer controlled main rip saws, conveyors, molders, wide belt sanders and shapers were systematically replaced during the various stages of the multimillion-dollar project which was begun in 2023 and which is now being completed. The operation gains and efficiencies, employee safety and comfort enhancements and overall product quality improvements will serve to maintain Diaz’s leadership in its industry for many years to come.

• InterMetro Industries Corp., Manufacturer Product Innovation award.

InterMetro Industries TableWorx system is a modular stainless steel worktable platform that represents industry firsts in both design and value proposition to the customer.

TableWorx reimagines what a stainless workstation can “bring to the table” by providing the customer both standard and accessorized options to maximize efficiency above and below the work surface; reducing time to complete tasks, providing additional storage at the workstation, improving ergonomics, and supporting the trend of more rigorous cleaning protocols.

These features effectively take a typical two-dimensional work surface and transform it into a three-dimensional productivity solution…and so much more. This patent pending system, with both above and below the work-surface accessories allows for the creation of virtually unlimited configurations to suit any job requirement. The overhead risers can be added at any time to convert a basic worktable into a high-productivity work center.

The TableWorx product family includes 133 manufactured components delivering innumerable configurations and thousands of different solutions. TableWorx is a truly modular platform allowing customization to the customer while minimizing operational complexity at InterMetro Industries.

• Mrs. T’s Pierogies, Manufacturer Product Innovation award.

Mrs. T’s Pierogies researched ways to grow their business to increase reach and bring innovation to existing and potential consumers. Knowing that consumers are snacking more than ever, and snack size items are trending in frozen foods, Mrs. T’s introduced NEW Snack Pierogies!

With innovative packaging crafted with consumer purchase triggers in mind, marketing support that highlights the snacking occasion and air frying preparation targeted to household with teens and tweens, Mrs. T’s launched Snack Pierogies in one of their key markets, Pittsburgh, in late 2023.

Snack Pierogies are created with dough optimized for quicker cook times, transfer conveniently from freezer to air-fryer, to create a golden, crispy bite everyone will love.

Mrs. T’s Snack Pierogies are stuffed with big, bold, on-trend flavors, like Cheddar Sour Cream & Onion, and Cheddar Ranch Seasoned with Bacon. From after-school snacking and game day appetizers to late night bites, Mrs. T’s Snack Pierogies are perfect for hungry teens and everyone else in between.

The recent launch included a foodservice partnership with the iconic Pittsburgh Eat’n Park restaurant where it was the number one appetizer in the first week and stayed in the top three appetizers throughout its time on the menu.

Mrs. T’s Snack Pierogies are now available for purchase exclusively in Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania area at Shop N’Save and Giant Eagle stores.

To learn more, visit mrstspierogies.com/snackpierogies.

• EMD Electronics, Manufacturer Expansion award

EMD Electronics has had a remarkable impact on our community and economic development. EMD Electronics has consistently demonstrated excellence in advanced manufacturing, setting a benchmark for innovation, leadership, and sustainable practices within our industry. Their commitment has not only propelled their company forward but has also positively influenced their peers and the broader community.

The EMD Electronics Hometown Facility celebrated a significant construction milestone as the final steel beam was installed in the 2-WF6 building. The expansion project began site civil works with an approved budget of $88.7M. The new building will be dedicated to producing WF6. The capacity of the new building will be 680 metric tons of WF6 and is anticipated to achieve a 92% increase in production. The new plant will offer the employment opportunity of an additional 20 operators. EMD Electronics is excited to watch the Hometown Facility “Level Up” and share these moments with a sense of overwhelming pride and accomplishment.

• Benton Foundry Inc., Manufacturer EHS – Environmental, Health & Safety award.

Benton Foundry completed a multi-year expansion project. As part of this expansion, the company undertook a number of measures to mitigate their potential negative effects on the neighboring natural waters and habitats, as well as maximize their efforts toward beneficially affecting them.

The project included the installation of 1.6 acres of engineered wetlands in a High-Quality Watershed on their property. They also replaced the existing riparian buffer to the native trout stream that was diseased and dying with a robust and disease resistant engineered riparian buffer. Benton Foundry added a 0.71-acre rain garden designed to mitigate the sediment from the parking lot before recharging the runoff to groundwater. They flanked their trucking area to one side with a 2.7-acre vegetated swale and the other with a 0.25 acre amended soil zone to accomplish similar results as the rain garden with increased diversity.

They added storm water-quality filters, several check dams, and an underground water retention basin along with filter bags at storm drains all in an effort to recharge the groundwater supply with more high-quality water. In summary, Benton Foundry has been able to decrease the amount of rainwater runoff as opposed to the expected increased runoff due to the additional buildings and paved areas. This aspect of the expansion was coordinated with several local stakeholders with a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. We are particularly thankful for the assistance of Aaron Sisler, (Borton Lawson), Barry Travelpiece (Columbia County Conservation District), Ted Oman & Associates, Steve Bason (Cedar Run Environmental Services), Jared Dressler (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection), and Amy Elliott (Army Corps of Engineers).

Benton Foundry takes pride in their commitment to environmental initiatives to ensure eco-friendly casting operations.

• UFP Industries, Gordon, Manufacturers Community Involvement honorable mention and MAEA Commitment award.

UFP Industries, Gordon made a focused effort to give back to their community in Schuylkill County.

They made monetary donations to local youth sports groups, homeless shelter, and fire companies. Volunteer fire fighting is down, fundraising for expensive firefighting vehicles

and gear has increased. The UFP Industries, Gordon charitable foundation provided a donation to the Gordon fire company to purchase a new fire truck.

UFP Industries, Gordon volunteered at Servants to All, the local homeless shelter in Pottsville. Employees served food to anyone who needed a “hand up”. UFP Industries, Gordon employees feel fortunate to give to local organizations assisting needy citizens of their community; UFP Industries, Gordon’s goal is to make the coal region a better place to live.

Commitment Award: Throughout the years UFP Industries Gordon’s partnership with MAEA has included investment in time and financial resources. Luke Hoak is serving on the MAEA Executive Committee as 2nd Vice Chair and is a member of the Board of Directors. The Gordon team members have provided sponsorships and networked during events including Golf Outings, Discovery Breakfast, Wellness Summit, Labor & Employment Law Summit, and Installation of Officers. UFP Industries Gordon also attended and supported our Roundtables/tours and Excellence Awards. They attended numerous MAEA training courses and roundtables encouraging the growth of their employees.

UFP Industries is active with the MAEC. They Attend the Schuylkill County Career Fair and Elementary Career Awareness Fairs for grades 4-6. UFP participates as a tour host, mock interviewing events and classroom speaking opportunities through the YES program.

UFP is a proud corporate sponsor.

• Industrial Construction Services & Design Inc., Manufacturers Process Improvement honorable mention.

A core service at ICON is metal fabrication. In 2023, ICON put into production a Prodevco brand model PCR42 robotic plasma cutter. This unit allows them to purchase full length / plate sizes of steel, which is both a cost and time savings. By putting stock pieces of steel into the Prodevco, ICON handles the material fewer times than in the past. Material will get cut, coped, slotted, beveled in a precise and much faster time than in the past. This applies to structural members, plates, and pipes. ICON has not eliminated any positions, but rather freed resources up to focus on other projects.

ICON estimated that across all jobs, the unit has saved about 2,200 effort hours in the past year. Additionally, the unit reads data using NC1 files. In converting either 2D or 3D files into NC1 files, ICON identified opportunities to streamline their shop drawing formats.

• EAM-Mosca Corp., Manufacturers Expansion honorable mention.

By maintaining its focus on building long-term teams of engaged and motivated employees, EAM-Mosca has established itself decade by decade as the strapping industry’s technology leader. Those technologies represent continuous development in innovation, performance, reliability, and customer support to ensure we are able to solve our customers’ current and ever-evolving operational challenges in their end-of-line packaging processes.

The backbone of our machinery portfolio is Mosca’s patented ultrasonic sealing technology, SoniXs. SoniXs became our game-changing technology. To date, this is a unique and industry-leading selling point for all EAM-Mosca equipment. EAM-Mosca introduced a new patent-pending industry benchmark in high performance bundling equipment. EAM-Mosca introduced Max-Q: Bundling Reinvented.

As industries seek to automate, increase output, and speed up their production lines, EAM-Mosca’s product portfolio has been positioned well to answer those needs. As such, we have been able to consistently and profitably grow year over year.

In a world of competitors that are often complacent and bureaucratic or sell only on price, EAM-Mosca is innovative, focused and committed to creating value for our customers. While utilizing new technology as a growth engine is a hallmark of the business, the components of people and performance also differentiate EAM-Mosca compared to our competition. When adding team members’ attributes, we seek to include critical thinking skills, a bias toward teamwork, and a proactive nature. We believe those attributes are key to our ongoing success. The combination of our products, team members and company culture represent a partnership that spans to each stakeholder: the partnership we offer our customers to solve their challenges and making good on our commitments long-term.

• PPL Electric Utilities, Employer Community Involvement award.

In a partnership, PPL helped complete a 1.2 million square foot Class A industrial warehouse facility. The project represents the private investment of approximately $130 million in construction costs, park improvements, off-site improvements, and a new pump station which will be dedicated to the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority. In addition to serving the park, the SCMA pump station will provide additional sanitary sewer capacity to support economic development projects in the region. During this first phase of construction, the project created approximately 150 construction jobs. The first tenant in Building 1, Box Partners, has leased 561,675 SF. Box Partners currently employs approximately 100 people with plans to employ approximately 200 people when fully operational.

In order to bring the project to completion PPL Electric Utilities needed to energize the Center. The energization of Building 1 service 2 required installation of 16 poles as a part of the Tie-Line project that includes a total of approximately 50 poles throughout Mountain Valley’s development footprint. The Tie-Line project is to provide additional power reliability and transferability for the customer.

Upon receipt of Right-of-Way and completion of design, PPL work management group worked through multiple roadblocks to achieve material readiness and mobilize the construction crew within five weeks of design release. The majority of the Tie Line project has been completed with the exception of a short extension to the future Building 2 site.

Without the partnership between Northpoint, Schuylkill Economic Development Corp., Senator Argall, and PPL Electric Utilities the project would not have been completed. This project is just the start of future economic development for this region.

• Masser Family of Companies, Employer Product Innovation award.

The Masser Family of Companies has launched a new innovative potato product under its SideDelights® brand, called AMAZABLES which includes a custom sauce created exclusively by Litehouse® a leader in dressings, dips and sauces.

AMAZABLES were developed to meet the needs of today’s consumer, who are looking for a single serve item, that is convenient and flavorful. A meal solution that is ready-to-eat in less than 15 minutes.

AMAZABLES are wrapped in an innovative #1 recyclable metallic material using Krisp Film technology that ‘shrinks’ around the potato in the microwave. It creates a crispy potato skin similar to the oven-baked method in six minutes. Krisp film material cooks the potato while allowing the steam to escape allowing the potato skin to crisp up while the potato flesh inside to cook to a fluffy, baked like texture. The drier, fluffier flesh absorbs the Litehouse sauces for a perfectly, amazingly tasty dressed baked potato. The ‘grab and go’ meal choice is a gluten-free choice at 360 calories.

In addition, to the new innovative crispy film being used, the packaging graphics are bright with an eye-catching design that takes potatoes to a whole new level. This is the first of its kind for the category. The product is available at local, regional, and national retailers as well as food service purveyors since late April.

• Downtown Shenandoah, Inc., Employer Expansion award.

Downtown Shenandoah, Inc. (DSI) is spearheading The Center For Education, Business & Arts (CEBA) a community center/innovation hub that will strengthen the economic landscape of their county and breathe new life into their community. It will provide a hub for all walks of life to collaborate, take classes, and find the resources and information they need to strengthen their skill sets. CEBA will include a commercial kitchen, Penn State Classroom, EARN office, multi-purpose event center and coworking spaces for budding entrepreneurs.

Additionally, as a zoning requirement based on the building’s size, DSI transformed two properties on S. Main Street previously damaged by fire into an off-street parking lot for CEBA visitors.

The multi-purpose facility is developed by Downtown Shenandoah, Inc. It is a three story, multi-million-dollar, 21,000 square foot building.

• Penn State Schuylkill, Employer EHS – Environmental, Health & Safety award.

Penn State Schuylkill received arboretum accreditation from the Interactive Community of Arboreta (ArbNet), the only international accreditation program for arboreta. Schuylkill attained Level I accreditation, which is the first step of accreditation. With this accreditation, Penn State Schuylkill is only the second Penn State campus with an accredited arboretum, with the other one being University Park.

To receive accreditation, Penn State Schuylkill needed to develop an arboretum plan, establish an organizational or governance group, secure volunteer support from the public, host at least one publicly accessible event per year, and — most importantly — be home to at least 25 species of woody plants.

Currently, Penn State Schuylkill’s arboretum is home to 42 species of trees and woody plants that are overseen by the Schuylkill Sustainability organization’s arboretum committee. They have planted their 400th tree!