VIP plans expansion of Heartland facility to begin food repackaging, increase recycling work

After nearly 35 years on the drawing board, Heartland Industries in Cape Girardeau has started work on a project to double the size of its warehouse and production facility in anticipation of business growth.

When completed later this year, the facility on Southern Expressway just west of South Sprigg Street will have roughly 110,000 square feet under roof, enough room to accommodate existing operations as well as future contracts.

“This was a dream of Mr. Schmittzehe’s when he first built the Heartland Industries building,” said VIP Industries CEO Susan Wallis in reference to her predecessor, Hilary Schmittzehe.

Founded by Schmittzehe in 1967 as the Cape Girardeau Community Sheltered Workshop, VIP Industries — parent of Heartland — has, over the years, provided employment and transportation for thousands of people with intellectual and development disabilities and operates sheltered workshops in Cape Girardeau, Fruitland and Marble Hill, Missouri. Heartland Industries, also known as VIP Vocational Services, provides employment for higher-functioning individuals in various types of work, including secure paper shredding and recycling.

“Right now, we’re heavy into recycling,” Wallis said. “That’s one of our largest contracts, but we’re also looking to go into a different type of industry, so we needed to expand the building.”

An addition is under construction at the Heartland Industries building, seen here Wednesday, on Southern Expressway in Cape Girardeau that will double the building's size -- from 55,000 to approximately 110,000 square feet -- and will allow the organization to offer additional production and warehousing services to its clients.JAY WOLZ

That “different type of industry” she referred to would be related to warehousing and packaging for the food industry.

“We’re not talking about manufacturing food or anything like that,” she explained. “We’re looking at repackaging food that’s already been packaged.” In other words, Heartland employees would be taking food and beverages and “bundling” them to suit their clients’ specifications.

“We’ll do the ‘add-on’ packaging,” said Barry Zerbe, the organization’s director of sales since 1976. “You may see ‘multi-packs’ of food or beverages in the grocery store. That’s the kind of business we’re looking to get into.”

To do that, the organization is working toward becoming “food ready certified” by the time the addition to the Heartland building is completed.

“We want the new addition to be set and ready to be certified so that when it opens we could put that kind of work into it the next day,” he said.

In the meantime, the organization continues to see a growth in its commercial recycling business, especially as more and more communities eliminate — or even discontinue — recycling services.

“Area communities are starting to bring their commercial recycling to our center as the communities themselves have either decreased their offering of recycling services or have gotten out of the business on the commercial side,” Zerbe said. That’s because the market for recycled material has decreased, as a number of nations, which once accepted shipments of recycled materials from the United States, no longer do so.

“We’ve been very fortunate that we have been able to keep moving the stuff,” Zerbe said, attributing that good fortune to business relationships dating back several decades, back to 1974 when VIP started accepting recycling at a location on Good Hope Street. “We’ve had an advantage of being in the recycling business as long as we’ve been, so we have a reputation within the industry.”

A growing number of companies and individuals depend on the organization to shred their documents, “and the recycling business, which probably consists of 80% corrugated materials, is also seeing an influx because they (commercial accounts and retailers) have nowhere else to go with it now,” Wallis said.

In the five-and-a-half-year period between 2014 and the second quarter of 2019, Wallis said the organization processed 23,864,792 pounds — or nearly 12,000 tons — of recycled materials.

“We’re seeing a huge pickup, especially in commercial recycling,” she said.

Counting all the organization’s components, the company employs between 130 and 150 workers at its three locations, primarily from Cape Girardeau, Scott and Bollinger counties. While it isn’t clear how the building expansion will impact employment, Zerbe said there will likely be a need for additional staff.

“That is our ultimate goal,” he said.

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