ARCO Design/Build has hired Brian Shoop as Director of Process Engineering for its Food & Beverage business, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based design-build firm announced on July 24. The appointment is intended to consolidate process design and construction under one contract, reducing the number of vendors food and beverage manufacturers must manage when commissioning new or upgraded production facilities.
The Hire
Shoop arrives from Gray, where he held the title of Vice President and led the firm's Process Engineering practice over a 16-year career. His specialisation centres on asset lifecycle management — engineering facilities and production lines so that equipment lifespan is maximised, structural integrity is maintained, and contamination risks are mitigated across a plant's operating life. Those capabilities align directly with the regulatory and operational pressures facing food manufacturers, where facility design and food safety compliance are increasingly inseparable.
"Brian has spent his career helping food and beverage manufacturers design processes and facilities that perform for decades," said Aaron Weir, President of ARCO Design/Build. "At ARCO, that expertise lives under the same roof as the team that builds the plant, which means our clients get a single accountable partner and a smoother path from concept to production."
Shoop will present at the International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting in New Orleans, July 26–29, 2026, joining a roundtable panel titled "Asset Lifecycle Management in Food Manufacturing: Engineering Principles for Equipment and Facility Longevity."
Strategic Context
The appointment reflects a deliberate move by ARCO to extend its footprint up the food supply chain. The firm built its national reputation over more than 30 years in cold storage and distribution facility construction, a segment where it ranks among the leading contractors in the United States. Adding in-house process engineering capability positions ARCO to capture work at the manufacturing and processing stage — upstream of the warehousing projects that have historically defined its food-sector revenue.
For food and beverage manufacturers, the integrated model carries practical implications. Project timelines from concept to production can lengthen significantly when process engineers, architects, and general contractors operate under separate contracts. Shoop framed ARCO's pitch around that pressure: "Behind every facility is a product launch, a retail commitment, a customer counting on capacity coming online. ARCO's delivery model is engineered for speed, and by putting process design inside that same model, we can take clients from concept to production faster than the traditional approach allows."
Industry Backdrop
Capital investment in food and beverage manufacturing infrastructure has remained elevated as producers respond to reshoring trends, capacity constraints in protein processing, and stricter food safety requirements under the Food Safety Modernization Act. Design-build delivery — in which a single firm holds responsibility for both design and construction — has grown as a preferred procurement model in the sector because it compresses schedules and fixes accountability. ARCO's move to embed process engineering internally represents the next logical step in that model, bringing production-line design into the same organisational structure as structural and mechanical engineering for foodservice and industrial facilities.
ARCO operates more than 50 offices nationwide and employs over 1,800 associates. The firm is 100% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
