Joe Miele is the owner of ABACA Management Inc. and a founding member of One Food Team. He provides the engineering “heavy lifting” for the team. Acting as the client’s “owner agent” his methods will improve feasibility planning, capital cost estimates and design, reducing installation delays and costly overruns.
Joe works with organizations to lead business expansion and consolidation projects. He assesses feasibility, risk, capital cost and schedule for projects. He is a subject matter expert for hot-fill PET, low acid, and aseptic filling capabilities. His experience extends to meat further processing, confections, baby food and many others. He has worked globally to include Vietnam, Thailand the Philippines.
Qualifications
- Building, motivating, and leading teams that deliver stretch objectives on time and budget
- Proven success in achieving the organization’s strategic goals and objectives by leveraging collaboration, the embracement of diversity and full personal accountability
- Expert in technical leadership, master planning, business expansion, consolidation, commercialization and projects that benefit the environment of all sizes and complexity
- Accomplished, seasoned leader with proven results across varied cultures, organizational constructs, entrepreneurial and global clients alike
- Demonstrated stage-gating success taking innovative concepts from bench to consumer
- Deep history of defining and delivering food, beverage, and snack projects of all sizes
- Skilled in dealing with project complexity, but very comfortable operating under ambiguity
Specialties
Technical Project Management~ Feasibility Studies~ Master Planning~ New Product Commercialization~ Cross Functional Collaboration~ Strategic Planning~ 360 Degree Communication~ Capital Equipment~ Program Management~ Site selection~ Technical Leadership~ Capital Budgeting~ Project Tracking~ Risk Management~ Team Building~ Operations Training~ Cost Reduction~ Resource Planning~ Capacity Expansion~ Process Design~ Environmental Stewardship~ Resource Conservation~ Process Mapping
Selected Master Planning Experience
- Organized an assessment team that identified the feasibility, risks, capital cost ($65MM) and schedule for a plant upgrade to internalize co-pack volume and meet incremental future demand
- Formulated and delivered a Master Plan establishing the feasibility, design, cost and schedule for the upgrade and $20MM expansion of a multi-line dairy producing consumer products
- Facilitated the concept design, engineering and capital cost justification for a purified water and spring water bottling capability for a regional grocery chain
- Directed the technical master planning of the facility, equipment and cost estimate that justified a Joint Venture investment of $20MM into constructing a soft drink plant in Costa Rica
Business Expansion and Consolidation
- Recruited and coordinated a team of architects, engineers and contractors in the design and construction of a $45MM facility that doubled capacity with a 25% savings in logistics costs
- Managed technical effort on a $4MM strategy to position the company for a sale by closing and selling one plant, renovating a second, and improving their viability as an acquisition candidate
- Liaised with the Executive team to identify options to regain a competitive pricing position by closing one plant and constructing a new facility in a more central location at significantly lower COGS
- Led the team effort from concept to construction of a multi-line $30MM co-packing operation for aseptic beverage, yogurt and soy consumer products; the largest such facility in the US
- Designed and constructed a system that mitigated supply risk associated with a single source supplier, added growth capacity and reduced distribution costs by 20%
- Orchestrated the purchase and $15MM renovation of a metal working factory into a regulatory compliant food processing plant for the production yogurt based fruit fillings for food service
New Product Commercialization
- Organized, Planned, Staffed and Directed a multi-disciplined team (creative studio, merchandising, procurement, construction,…) charged with revitalizing the showroom and design space in 2,000 independent retail chain stores across the US in a four year $100MM program
- Stage-gated the entry of shelf stable soy milk into the good-for-you beverage sector in SE Asia from bench to pipeline fill
- Managed the project management and technical design to commercialize a number of innovative juice products that reversed market share slip and became flagship brands
- Introduced the first production systems in the US with FDA approval to produce 250 ml aseptic drinks on a commercial basis, sparking unprecedented demand and a unique beverage space
- Partnered with R&D, our team developed and introduced to the industry the use of PET containers as a superior packaging system over multi-serve glass, redefining industry standards
Environmental Stewardship
- Organized, Planned, Staffed and Directed a multi-disciplined team (creative studio, merchandising, procurement, construction,…) charged with revitalizing the showroom and design space in 2,000 independent retail chain stores across the US in a four year $100MM program
- Stage-gated the entry of shelf stable soy milk into the good-for-you beverage sector in SE Asia from bench to pipeline fill
- Managed the project management and technical design to commercialize a number of innovative juice products that reversed market share slip and became flagship brands
- Introduced the first production systems in the US with FDA approval to produce 250 ml aseptic drinks on a commercial basis, sparking unprecedented demand and a unique beverage space
- Partnered with R&D, our team developed and introduced to the industry the use of PET containers as a superior packaging system over multi-serve glass, redefining industry standards
Credentials; B.S. Chemical Engineering
Graduate Studies-Marketing
PMO Qualified
American Chemical Society Member