Justin L. Sandall has been announced as the new president of walk-in cooler/freezer specialist Imperial Brown. Sandall assumed the presidency of the company, which makes $50 million in revenues annually, on 1 Jan. 2016. He replaces Rick Schermerhorn, who will retire in 2016 after nine years as president. Sandall has previously served as executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the company.
In announcing Sandall’s promotion to employees, Schermerhorn said that Sandall has his full support, that of the board of directors and the company’s professional advisors. “He is well equipped to lead our company to greatness. The transition is by design and very orderly,” said Schermerhorn, adding that Sandall “has a command of both operations and financials and is astute on the IT side of the business.”
As president, Sandall will be based in Portland and will spend one week per month at the firm’s North Carolina plant. “We are now the only company in North America that produces walk-ins with a combination of hard-nose and soft-nose panels,” said Sandall.
Sandall was heavily involved with the acquisition and integration of the North Carolina facility, which resulted in a doubling of the output. Sandall joined Imperial Manufacturing of Portland, Oregon, 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, North Carolina, in 2012. The business was merged into Imperial Brown, Inc., and is owned by Imperial Brown Holdings.
Michael Jones
