Landscape Forms, a designer and manufacturer of premier quality site furniture, accessories and lighting, recently announced a multimillion dollar investment in three major facility projects designed to increase manufacturing capacity, streamline workflow, support growth in new and expanding product categories, and enhance customer experience. Landscape Forms’ Board of Directors approved the investment as the company reaches new milestones of over 46 years in business and $100,000,000 in annual sales.
“Our goal is to create a benchmark-standard, world-class manufacturing capability that meets our customer needs for quality, service and delivery and our shareholder and employee needs for growth and profitability,” explained Landscape Forms President Richard Heriford. “Doubling in sales every six or seven years provides great opportunities for everyone in the company. We are now designing our facilities and processes, as well as our products, to provide an incredible experience for our customers and our employees. These projects are designed to make Landscape Forms the best choice, whether you are choosing to work here, invest here, or buy our products.”
Two new facilities will augment existing manufacturing operations at the company’s corporate headquarters and 50-acre campus in Lawndale, Mich. Both are within a six-mile radius of the Lawndale facility, which will be reengineered to align with manufacturing functions at other facilities and improve production flow. Projects will be orchestrated to ensure a seamless transition with no interruption in manufacturing or service. The refitted 97,000-square-foot Lawndale facility will house material storage, production and prototype metal fabrication, as well as expanded capabilities for Studio 431, Landscape Forms’ rapidly growing custom products division. In a first for the industry, the campus recently unveiled its outdoor lighting and furniture showroom at a lighting conference hosted on site. The outdoor showroom enables customers to experience award winning LED lighting products fully integrated with site furniture collections.
Construction has begun on a new 165,000-square-foot facility at Midlink, the historic General Motor’s Fisher Body Plant. By repurposing a large part of this imposing industrial structure, the company acquires unique space that includes 6-foot deep poured concrete floors, 38-foot ceilings and abundant natural light. Midlink will serve as the center for powdercoat finishing, assembly, and shipping from its strategic location adjacent to the I-94 East/West transit corridor. Its centerpiece is a new energy efficient Monorail Powder Coat System that replaces the existing system at Lawndale, increasing spray finish capacity to meet increasing volumes and handling a wider range of product sizes and material substrates.
The third project in the ambitious three-pronged initiative is a new production facility for Ultra High Performance Concrete (UPHC), located in Richland, Mich. Nearing completion, the 17,000-square-foot facility is dedicated to the production of Landscape Forms’ Meldstone, the company’s proprietary composite for producing lightweight concrete products. The cornerstone of the new factory is a custom computerized mixing system that combines material dispensing, high-horsepower mixing and programmable computer functions into a single system that is the first of its kind in North America. This new capability enables the company to expand its production of innovative designs that push the parameters for the material.
Together the three projects support the development and production of high-design products crafted to exacting quality standards, in facilities with the best technology and equipment, by people working in a culture that values their labor. With these significant investments, Landscape Forms’ signals its commitment to maintaining and growing its industry leadership.
