A M King has announced that it has begun expansion of Northeast Foods’ Automatic Rolls of New England bakery. The new cold storage distribution and process space on Lake Road in Killingly Industrial Park will allow the company to significantly increase freezer capacity. The anticipated completion is early 2018.

Automatic Rolls of New England specializes in rolls for McDonald's and English muffins for McDonald's and retail customers. This plant of Northeast Foods has produced buns and English Muffins for McDonald's since the early 70s. A new plant was built and started in 1999, the current location where construction for the freezer is underway.  

The scope of work provided by A M King at this Automatic Rolls facility includes 16,600-square-feet of freezer, cooler dock and second floor engine room addition and conversion of 1,600-square feet of ambient dock to cooler dock. The expansion contains accommodations for an innovative ASRS (Automatic Storage and Retrieval System) by Optimus Automation in the freezer, which will feature fully automated racking storage up to 40 feet at negative 20-degrees with approximately 1,500 new pallet positions. The system will reduce human interaction, help regulate temperature in the freezer and decrease the need for lighting in the area. The added freezer will also help shrink the number of standing diesel refrigerated trucks on site at the facility and in turn, minimize the noise to the adjacent community.

The project will also consist of sitework such as construction of a new parking lot, utility improvements and a new access road, retention pond improvements, and modification of the employee entrance. In addition, energy-efficient lighting will be installed both inside and outside the facility.

“This project will highlight what A M King does best, which is meeting the needs of our clients while working in a live environment with their end users,” says A M King project manager Eric Perkins. “This expansion is on a very compact site and includes renovation of the existing docks to new cooler docks spaces while the plant is in continual operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Multi-phase construction sequencing and coordination with the facility engineers is and will continue to be of the utmost importance for employee/truck traffic as well as internal operations of the facility throughout construction.”