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A Better Way – Stories From Holland Construction

The Volpi Partnership

Background

John Volpi opened his first storefront in the St. Louis neighborhood known as “The Hill” to sell his dry-cured meats using old-world Italian techniques that had been handed down, generation to generation. Today, over 100 years later, the Volpi family and business remain in the very same neighborhood, using the same centuries-old methods and recipes, to offer products enjoyed across the region, around the country, and beyond.

The Initial Idea

In early 2020, the Volpi family was looking to expand with a new production facility that would be adjacent to their existing prosciutto processing plant in St. Louis. Based on previous experiences, there was some hesitation in engaging with a general contractor, but Volpi was confident to approach Holland Construction Services for partnership thanks to some incredible word of mouth.

Enter Holland

After inspired brainstorming and ideation sessions, a new industrial project was agreed upon: Holland would provide construction management services for an 87,000 square-foot meat slicing and packaging facility, as well office and administration space.

What made this particular industrial project especially unique was the fact that the Volpi family was looking for a partner that would work within the exacting, old-world methods essential to the very essence of their production techniques. For this project, that meant building around the imported Italian equipment and materials used in production, as well as partnering with the numerous Italian engineers, contractors, and vendors who specialized in the installation of them.

A Better Way

With an obvious language difference between them, the Holland team found several creative solutions to keep the project moving… including using technology found in most everyone’s pockets.

“We had a language barrier between US workers and crews from Italy. Some members of the crew from Italy knew some English – enough to get through it. We also used translators from our phone apps. Sometimes they worked great, and sometimes not. It was neat to build relationships with their crews from Italy. A few even brought items back from Italy to some of our crew when they returned. It was their way of saying thanks for the help.”

With language solutions in place, the Holland team, the Volpi family, and their Italian partners, seamlessly joined forces, working together every step of the way to achieve exactly what the family set out to build.

And for the team at HCS, leaning on expertise, innovation, and more than a little creativity, they once again proved that, in any language, Holland is A Better Way to Build.

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Scott Hendricks

Vice President of Industrial

shendricks@hollandcs.com

618-722-2454