During the Fall, The Trailblazer Café was officially opened operationally during an employee ribbon-cutting ceremony at Wacker-Charleston. Pictured, left to right: Wacker-Charleston Production Manager Drew Tong, Southern Foodservice Regional Operations Terrence Taylor, Wacker-Charleston Project Manager Aubrey Davis, Wacker-Charleston Site Leader Ken Collins, Southern Foodservice Chef William Keck, Wacker-Charleston Silicones Director Scott Borst, and Southern Foodservice Regional Manager Michael Pfeiffer
Wacker-Charleston recently hosted a media tour and briefing about its new Trailblazer Café. Company officials celebrated the opening of the Trailblazer Café with a ribbon-cutting in September. The name is a nod to the original Wacker-Charleston employees, who celebrated their 13th anniversary this summer. The company invested approximately $2 million to renovate nearly 7,000 square feet of its administrative office building, encompassing the dining area, kitchen, serving area, market and vending machine space.
“The Trailblazer Café represents a significant milestone in the development of our site,” said Ken Collins, senior director and site leader at Wacker-Charleston.
“It enhances employee morale and positively impacts our recruitment and retention efforts by demonstrating our strong commitment to creating a safe, respectful and supportive environment for all employees.”
Officials said, "The multimillion-dollar investment provides nearly 850 employees and contractors working on-site during the week with access to quality and competitively priced breakfast and lunch meal service options onsite. This enhances safety, promotes a healthier lifestyle and fosters a sense of community among our diverse workforce, including hourly and salaried team members working in different environments across the site.
"The Trailblazer Café enhances safety and provides a convenient and accessible hub for quality food options, ensuring a stress-free dining experience for Wacker-Charleston employees and other on-site workers."
Wacker-Charleston partnered with Southern Foodservice Management from Birmingham to manage The Trailblazer Café.
Officials said, "Southern Foodservice Management brought extensive experience in corporate dining, having served major companies in Southeast Tennessee. Their expertise in menu planning, kitchen design and operational management was crucial in creating a facility that met the Wacker-Charleston’s workforce needs and expectations."
The Trailblazer Café offers breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, serving approximately 2,500 weekly meals, including onsite catering services.
“Our main focus with the Trailblazer Café was to take the data we gathered from employee surveys to determine hours of operation, menu selections and specific requests for dining amenities, focusing on the needs of our employees,” said Aubrey Davis, project manager at Wacker-Charleston, who oversaw the construction of The Trailblazer Café. “Wacker continues to support the Charleston site by subsidizing our meals to keep options affordable. We had great local partners that made the project successful. Wacker team members and our partners performed all the work safely and met the schedule to provide food service to our employees as soon as possible.”