Hiawatha packaging company planning addition

HIAWATHA - CCB Packaging, 1905 N. Center Point Road in Hiawatha, has broken ground for its sixth and final addition.

Brad Canfield, president of CCB Packaging, said the 47,000-square-foot project will bring the company's manufacturing, warehousing and office space to 250,000 square feet.

'It will be the last expansion on property that we own,” Canfield said. 'Our next expansion will probably be a stand-alone facility, either in this area or another market.

'Having a building with 250,000 square feet and doing what we do is just about the maximum size for operating efficiency. When you get much bigger, you lose some operating efficiencies.”

Canfield said the addition, which will be designed by Knapp Warden Architecture of Cedar Rapids, will be similar in appearance to the company's office addition, with brick at the corners of a metal building.

'It's going to be a combination of manufacturing and work-in-process warehouse space,” he said. 'We're adding 11 truck docks because we do a lot of staging at the docks, We don't hold a lot of materials for any length of time.”

CCB Packaging, which creates displays for consumer products companies, employs about 120 full-time permanent employees, supplemented with 120 to 200 temporary workers. Canfield said the addition will lead to the creation of 12 to 15 permanent full-time positions.

Although ground was broken before Thanksgiving for the addition with a temporary building permit from the city, the recent rains and warm temperatures have turned the ground to mud and halted construction activity.

'We are hoping to complete the project in May or June,” Canfield said.

Canfield said CCB Packaging has a constant need for skilled mechanical people to maintain automation equipment, He said the company also looking for skilled forklift drivers and line supervisors.

'We started our own staffing agency about five years ago,” he said. 'We've opened a Premier Staffing office in Waterloo, which has a higher unemployment rate than Cedar Rapids.”