Red Jacket Orchards chose AcryliCon Décor System as their flooring solution in their newly constructed $3.7 million LEED-qualified processing and cold storage facility.


Red Jacket Orchards, a third-generation family-owned orchard and juice processing company based in Geneva, N.Y., chose AcryliCon Décor System from AcryliCon USA, Chesapeake, Va., as their flooring solution in their newly constructed $3.7 million LEED-qualified processing and cold storage facility.

“We selected AcryliCon due to our overall design philosophy of identifying products that would support our process to deliver healthy, premium products,” according to Brian Nicholson, president of Red Jacket. “We knew AcryliCon had both short term and long term benefits for us, and we are very pleased with our flooring decision one year later. The floor looks the same today as the day it was installed, and we are extremely satisfied with how well it is performing under constant wear and tear. We love this floor. It is actually a selling point that we use for potential customers.”

Premium fruit juices, as those produced by the Nicholson family, start with quality fresh fruit, a special blending technique developed more than 50 years ago and a hygienic production facility. Red Jacket’s premium juices have received recognition for their taste and quality from the Zagat Survey, Specialty Food Magazine and The New York Times, and they are currently distributors for customers such as Whole Foods, Wegmans and the NYC Green Market. Red Jacket is committed “to nurturing the tastiest fruits from their fertile lands and pressing the freshest juices possible. They are passionate about delivering amazing flavor and quality - fit for their own family’s table.”

To reflect that commitment, the Nicholsons’ wanted to design and build a facility that would not only meet today’s environmental standards but also use the best resources available to provide their customers and employees with a safe, long-lasting, hygienic and easy-to-maintain processing plant. In a juice processing facility, the commitment to maintaining a healthy and hygienic floor is paramount to both the health of the consumer and the health of the company.

By specifying the AcryliCon Décor Quartz flooring, Red Jacket identified a flooring system that withstands harsh conditions over a long period of time, in fact, more than 30 years.

Founded in Norway in 1977, AcryliCon Industrial Flooring has garnered more than 92% of the flooring installations in the Norwegian seafood processing industry, where floors are constantly subjected to salt water, lactic acid, ice, temperatures in the 30’s and constant forklift traffic – harder traffic than even Red Jacket would bare. And even though fish and juice processing would appear divergent, they in fact have many parallels in their flooring requirements.

Cleanliness and safety are on-going challenges in the highly regulated and demanding food/beverage processing environment. During processing, acids and juices can penetrate porous surfaces, which harbor bacteria and eat away at the substrate below. In addition, the constant presence of hot and cold water, cleaning products and heavy machinery in the processing industry cause damage to common flooring systems, thus creating more cracks and crevices for harboring molds and bacteria.

Roger Morse, vice president of plant operations, says that Red Jacket instantly became interested in the AcryliCon Décor System as they researched the floor’s performance characteristics. The comfort level became even stronger when Morse learned that AcryliCon has a cure time of only two hours, requires minimal maintenance and cleaning costs and has the ability to chemically fuse to itself for the life of the product, always providing a seamless, monolithic floor. This meant that when they were ready to expand the juicing line, AcryliCon enables Red Jacket to be up and running with little to no down time.

In a processing facility, shut downs, repairs and failures are costly, both from a monetary and health impact. Morse factored in the time and cost associated with future maintenance and replacements, and decided that AcryliCon had the best long-term cost savings.

To ensure they had the cleanest and safest floors, Red Jacket installed the AcryliCon Décor
System with Microban, of which AcryliCon is the only authorized U.S. provider for industrial flooring. In addition, the AcryliCon installer used aluminum oxide in the system’s topcoat to meet all non-slip HACCP standards.

In determining their flooring provider, owner Brian Nicholson, says, “by making the initial investment in products and processes that meet our LEED commitment and continue our philosophy of producing premium juice in a manner that reflects our family’s commitment to our home [and] the orchard, we believe the investment justifies the payback…delivering long-term performance and providing a safe and clean environment for our workers and ultimately our customers. AcryliCon meets our premium standards and was the smartest choice for our facility.”

With the addition of this new plant, Red Jacket plans on quadrupling their juice production, currently at the half-million gallon mark. From seed to juice, Red Jacket Orchards provides a premium product based on their long-term commitment to a premium facility.

ABOUT ACRYLICON INDUSTRIAL FLOORING
AcryliCon is a leading manufacturer and installer of industrial flooring solutions for the food/beverage, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Other installations include military, educational, retail and automotive facilities, parking garages, power plants, supermarkets, public spaces, transportation, stadiums and conference centers. Founded in 1977 by Norwegian chemical engineer Bjorn Hegstad, AcryliCon’s unique flooring solutions have transformed the industrial flooring industry worldwide by outperforming and outlasting all others.

AcryliCon At a Glance-
• High compressive strength allowing for heavier mechanical loads – 12,000 to 15,000 psi
• Maximum wear resistance
• Easy and cost-effective maintenance
• Easier to clean – nonporous, monolithic and seamless
• Non-toxic/VOC compliant
• Installation at temperatures as low as -13°F
• Chemical resistance, including acids
• UV resistant
• Short curing time - one to two hours
• Proven market of long-lasting, reliable floors
• Maintains its chemical construction for the life of the floor – no delamination risk
• Unbreakable bond to concrete
• Customized slip-resistant textures, ADA and OSHA compliant
• Microban antibacterial protection
• EU approved in all food industry installations
• No removal for recoating or repairs

By using AcryliCon flooring systems, industries are able to maintain hygienic and aesthetically pleasing factory conditions that are built to last, making them a long-term solution for facilities around the world. AcryliCon will be happy to share numerous examples and references attesting to the longevity of its 10-, 20- and 30-year-old floors.


For more information, call 888-736-7550 or go to www.acrylicon.com.