Imperial Brown, Inc., one of the leading walk-in cooler/freezer manufacturers in the world, with plants in Portland, Ore., and Salisbury has named a new president.

On Jan. 1, Justin L. Sandall will assume the presidency of the company which has $50 million yearly in revenues. He replaces Rick Schermerhorn, who will retire in 2016 after nine years as president.

Sandall has served as executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

Schermerhorn, in announcing the promotion to employees, said that Sandall has his full support and the full support of the board of directors and the company’s professional advisers.

“He is well equipped to lead our company to greatness,” Schermerhorn said. The transition is by design and very orderly, he said.

Sandall joined Imperial Manufacturing of Portland, Ore., as a college intern 15 years ago. After earning a business degree with emphasis on finance at Oregon State University in Corvallis, he joined the company full-time, developing software in IT and then working in both the accounting and procurement departments. He became responsible for the finance department in 2006, was named CFO in 2007 and also has extensive experience in operations, most recently serving as COO.

Imperial Manufacturing, established in 1970, acquired the 100-year-old W.A. Brown & Son Inc. of Salisbury in 2012. The business was merged into Imperial Brown, Inc., and is owned by Imperial Brown Holdings.

Looking at his history with the company, Sandall said that most importantly to him, he has been “heavily involved with the acquisition and integration of the North Carolina facility. Being able to assimilate the plant and divergent technology has been very important. However, being able to imbue the operation with the Imperial Brown culture and restore the feelings of pride, trust and security has been gratifying beyond measure.”

Sandall’s work at the North Carolina facility has resulted in doubling output with an investment of more than $1 million in new machinery and equipment.

“The merger has given us bicoastal operations, which brings with it many benefits in terms of logistics, redundancy, additional capacity, market reach and economies of scale,” Sandall said.

As president, Sandall will be based in Portland and will spend one week per month at the Salisbury plant. During his tenure with Schermerhorn, he said the company moved from 30 percent employee-owned to 100 percent employee-owned and all associated debt was paid off ahead of schedule.

“As COO, I led the development of hybrid walk-in technology,” he said. “We are now the only company in North America that produces walk-ins with a combination of hard-nose and soft-nose panels.” This is a distinct advantage to customers, allowing for customization and efficiency of cost.

Schermerhorn said that Sandall “has a command of both operations and financials and is astute on the IT side of the business.”

Sandall is credited with integrating the company from the initial sales proposal and quote to the invoicing; automating procedures at both the east coast and west coast facilities; merging accounting and computer systems and moving the company to a paperless business.

“These achievements increased productivity and reduced employee cost so that we could reallocate resources,” Schermerhorn said. “He has merged the two companies into one cohesive company in all aspects, from manufacturing to quoting.”

Sandall sees the company’s future as “a long road of steady, responsible growth for our company and its employee-owners and partners. We want to continue to provide opportunities and stability for our employee shareholders, and we will continue to pursue acquisitions to support that goal. However, we need to do so without sacrificing what makes our company great – happy employees, delivering excellent customer service with a high-touch, small company feel. We are distinctly different than the large scale, corporate walk-in manufacturers, and our customers appreciate that.”

He also sees “a myriad of challenges in today’s business climate. At the end of the day, the one thing that a company has to combat all of those challenges is its culture,” Sandall said. “The culture – how employees feel about the company, themselves and each other – is the most valuable asset a company has. Cultivating, guarding and protecting that culture, especially while growing the business, is my most important and difficult challenge.”

Schermerhorn said that the 100 percent employee-owned ESOP corporate structure is set up to allow the company to purchase other manufacturing businesses, either related or unrelated to current operations.

“I see continued growth in the future and diversification into other pursuits,” he said.

Schermerhorn will remain with the company in an advisory capacity until his retirement in July. He will continue to serve on the Board of Directors. Christel Jimenez has been appointed CFO. Sandall will retain COO responsibilities.

Schermerhorn joined the company 18 years ago, working in sales management and then as vice president of sales before being named president and CEO. In those 15 years, the company grew yearly revenues from $8 million to more than $50 million and moved from a regional company in the northwest to national status in the industry.

The Board of Directors is composed of Schermerhorn, chairman and CEO; Sandall, president and COO; Olivier Beillard, vice president of IT and design and Robert Hicks and Sandy Nosler, independents.

Imperial Brown is a leader in temperature management facilities for food service, biotechnology, medical and building construction industries. It manufactures walk-in coolers and freezers for restaurants and commercial kitchens, cold storage components for fish processing plants, ice makers for dam construction, wide range testing chambers, pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, high humidity and dry chambers, robotic enclosures and archival storage chambers for some of the most valuable and fragile documents in human history.