Hi-Pro Feeds produces and distributes animal feed for livestock, including cattle, horses, and poultry. Their mills in rural Texas and Oklahoma are large industrial environments, unairconditioned and often dusty from processing grain and other raw materials.

“We’re manufacturing animal feed,” said Todd Munsch, a health and safety manager for the company. “Commodity dust, grain dust, mineral dust, no air conditioner, and they’re working outside some. It’s agriculture work.”

Hi-Pro recognized the need to give their mill employees a locker room area. They were using a small, prefabricated structure that was meant to be used as a shed. It was falling apart, and it wasn’t a reflection of how the company wanted to treat its workers.

Fulfilling a Promise to Employees

Decision-makers decided over two years ago to add new locker room facilities to Hi-Pro’s Comanche, Texas mill site. But the town’s rural location made it difficult to find a contractor, let alone break ground. 

“Comanche for some reason took over two years. We looked for contractors to build out a locker room shower area. We might get someone to show up, and they’d never call us back,” Munsch shared. 

Hi-Pro felt the pressure to act, especially after telling the employees at the Comanche site that a locker room complete with showers and toilets was coming their way.

“I felt bad for the people working there because I’m like, hey, I’m going to get you this locker room,” Munsch said. “I was at a dead end.” Two years in, he and his team made the trip to Falcon’s site to see if containers could serve as the locker rooms they had long promised their workers. 

Making Containers Work for the Workers

Hi-Pro and Falcon teamed up to create a total of 3 40-foot container locker rooms. They include showers, toilets, space for workers to store personal belongings, and climate control. 

Speed was an important factor in choosing containers, but durability was even more so. “I knew they were going to be durable. I can pick these up and move them to another location,” Munsch said.

Since the company struggled to find a contractor even willing to give them a quote for a stick-built structure, it made more sense to take the modular approach and have Falcon build the locker rooms offsite and deliver them. 

“This way it was easy. One day they’re here. Put electrical in them. Plumb them, and you’re good to go,” said Munsch. 

Setting a New Company Standard

Employees now use their new container locker rooms as opposed to the old shed. They can shower after working in a dusty agriculture environment and store their belongings in lockers. Plus, no more porta potties. 

“They really enjoy it,” Munsch said. “They have somewhere cool or warm to get dressed and go to the bathroom. I’ve even had office employees try to sneak in there to go to the bathroom.”

The Hi-Pro Feeds team was pleased at how quickly they were able to execute the project with Falcon, especially after literal years of struggling to get a commercial builder to their remote part of central Texas. 

“We were able to make a decision and get something built and to the site. It was easy for us to get it done. Once it showed up we got it hooked up,” Munsch said. 

There are already future container projects in the queue for Hi-Pro, capitalizing on the pre-existing relationship between Falcon and their team. Containers are the durable, portable, and timely solution to many of their agriculture industry challenges. 

And if Hi-Pro hadn’t discovered modified shipping containers for their workforce? Munsch said, “Honestly, we’d try to work with what we had and make it a little better. But it would not be up to the standard that we have today.”