As part of the company’s ongoing strategy to attract top talent to join its workforce as well as retain the highly valued members of its team, Bixby International implemented a complete renovation of its office space during 2019. In addition to making its Newburyport, MA headquarters more welcoming to clients, the primary reason for the renovation was Bixby’s continued investment in its employees.
The project, which was the first of two phases to upgrade the company’s workspace, included the addition of a new in-house café, an outdoor patio, a renovation of all offices, as well as new cubes, floors, ceilings, furniture, and lighting throughout the facility. In particular, the new café and patio have generated a great deal of positive feedback from employees, according to Bixby President and CEO Dan Rocconi.
“Everyone on our team really loves the new cafe, it’s a space where our salaried and union employees can all get together and interact, and – prior to now – we didn’t really have a nice, comfortable space to do this," said Dan Rocconi, President and CEO. "The outdoor patio has also generated a lot of excitement – it was completed in November, so everyone is looking forward to getting out there next spring to take advantage of being outside."
Mr. Rocconi, who has worked in the Newburyport facility for over 11 years, said the renovation project is “hands down” the most extensive upgrade the headquarters has undergone since he joined the company. As Bixby looks to increase its workforce in 2020 – there are currently 86 employees in Newburyport – the newly appointed space will play a key role in attracting skilled and experienced people to fill new positions at the company.
In 2020, the second phase of the renovation will entail a complete upgrade and modernization of Bixby’s laboratory space, including increasing the size of the lab to accommodate the recent purchase of several new pieces of equipment. These capital investments include a new gravure laminator, a belt laminator, a co-extrusion line, and new analytical equipment. Once the lab upgrade phase is complete next year, the engineering team will focus on improving Bixby’s drying capabilities, blending capabilities, and web handling capacity.
In addition to the completed as well as upcoming renovations, Bixby made several key new hires in 2019 as part of the company’s focus on increasing its workforce.
Here are the new employees who joined the team this year:
• Corinne Cutler, Lean Manufacturing Manager
• Timothy Glowik, Senior Application Development Engineer
• Sean Hennessy, Supply Chain Manager
• Timothy Libert, Technology Platform Manager
• Kaitlyn McHenry, Human Resources Generalist
• Harold Panabaker, Global Industry Manager
• Jeffrey Raymond, Application Development Engineer
• James Vienneau, Technical Engineer
“Our employees are so important to us, we’ve hired such great people over the years – including the new folks who joined us in 2019 – and we want to continue to hire great people going forward,” Mr. Rocconi said. “And now we have a work environment that helps us retain our current team as well attract top talent to Bixby in the future.”
As Bixby sets its sights on the upcoming year, the company will continue to make capital investments in equipment to improve its manufacturing capabilities, as well as investing in its people who are the key to the company's success. Bixby will also continue to identify new markets to leverage its current capabilities more effectively.
“With this year's achievements to reflect on, and next year's goals in focus, the Bixby team is looking forward to the New Year and all the successes that it will bring,” Mr. Rocconi said.