Throwback Thursday – General Mills Expansion

Do you like Bugles? That delicious horn shaped corn chip snack food? Well then this Epstein #ThrowbackThrusday will make you want to open up a bag and enjoy some fried degermed yellow corn meal, coconut oil, sugar, salt, baking soda & the delicious food additive, BHT (Butylated hydroxytoluene) while you read!

You see Bugles were first manufactured in 1966 out of an Epstein designed, engineered and constructed facility located in West Chicago, Illinois. This 600,000 sf addition was required so that General Mills could not only produce the newly developed Bugles, but also the snacks Whistles and Daisies. This addition featured a 135-foot long pedestrian bridge made of precast concrete to connect a new warehouse with the existing manufacturing building.

Additionally, this building was completed using a very unique delivery method for the mid-60s Design-Build! Epsteins architects and engineers in collaboration with our construction staff were able to knock off 11 months vs a typical construction schedule, allowing General Mills to begin producing, distributing and selling Bugles, Whistles and Daisies nearly a year earlier than previously planned.

This facility is still owned and operated by General Mills and, more importantly, Bugles are still being produced by General Mills. The same, alas, cannot be said for Whistles and Daisies.