Launched in 1967 when founder Ron Piazza began making pizzas in his Clackamas, Ore.-based grocery store, Wild Mike’s Ultimate Pizza now produces frozen and refrigerated pizzas carried in grocery stores and schools nationwide. With its products’ signature zesty sauce, buttery dough and colorful packaging, the family-­owned-and-operated company promotes all-natural ingredients and is all about creating fun dining experiences meant to be shared by family and friends.

Several years ago, when Wild Mike’s decided to begin producing its growing line of meat- and cheese-filled pizza bites through its own bakery subsidiary, Summit Frozen Foods (also based in Clackamas), the company reached out to electrical contracting firm M2 Integration LLC for its design-build expertise in high-speed manufacturing operations within a hygienic and tightly controlled environment. Since M2’s successful completion of the new facility in late 2024–early 2025, the Wild Mike’s production space can support more than 200 pieces of precision equipment and churn out 1,400 pizza bites per minute.

Founded in 2017 in Estacada, Ore., M2 Integration is a niche business that was built on owner Joe Berman’s strong background in the aerospace and electrical sectors. Nearly a decade later, “our aerospace division continues to handle large fabrication projects, but we also do a lot of electrical work for commercial and industrial clients,” said Shon Shiiki, founding team member and project manager. “We’re particularly active in the food and cold storage segments as well as in schools, where we serve most of the Portland Public School District, and we currently have about 70 employees.”

Shiiki grew up right next door to the Piazzas and had long been doing electrical work for Wild Mike’s. 

“So when this design-build project arose in 2023, they came to M2 Integration with their vision and we spent the following year putting rough designs and budgets together,” Shiiki said. “We started building it out in 2024 and completed the project about a year later.”

According to Shiiki, Wild Mike’s had been using an outside provider to make the pizza bites but wanted to build its own production line to produce them in-house.

“Wild Mike’s operates both their Summit Frozen Foods bakery and a toppings plant in Clackamas, with the bakery making all of the crusts and then sending them to the toppings plant to get topped, boxed and shipped worldwide, but they wanted one cohesive operation that comprehended all of these activities for their pizza bite line,” he said. “We gutted an existing 32,000-square-foot building of theirs and started from scratch on a design and installation that would house all of the equipment needed to perform everything from mixing, kneading and proofing dough to rolling it out, cutting it, baking it and packaging it, all laid out in the most intuitive and economical way.”

A daring design

The core of the project involved M2 Integration’s implementation of two 3,000A, 480V services featuring underground and utility-fed conduits to reliably and efficiently support the facility’s high-tech operations. Designed concurrently with construction, the electrical layout integrated early modeling with phased delivery to ensure uninterrupted progress.

With pandemic-era material delays still lingering in the 2023–2024 timeframe as the project got underway, Shiiki said that his team’s proactive procurement strategy contributed to their success and on-time delivery.

“In the beginning, we looked at every product we needed in order to build a plant like this and ordered things months before we were ever on-site, so we were able to minimize most material delays,” he said, adding that the process of securing the critical switchgear necessary for the project required an even more resourceful approach.

The beginning of the sheeting line where dough is loaded into the hopper by elevator to begin its journey through the bakery.

“Through our aerospace industry connections over the years, we’ve forged a great relationship with Eaton [Beachwood, Ohio], a leading manufacturer of switchgear,” he said, adding that, because switchgear shipping times since the pandemic can still remain as long as a year out and pose significant issues for electrical contractors, “we approached our contacts at Eaton about getting switchgear quickly and affordably and were able to secure the equipment we needed within seven months—over six months ahead of its normal delivery schedule—which allowed us to meet our tight deadlines.”

Challenges throughout the food chain

While the quick delivery of their switchgear served the project well overall, it also unfortunately resulted in one particularly challenging and unforeseen situation for the M2 Integration team. 

“One of the circuit breakers installed inside a new piece of switchgear that we purchased to power the new plant was stolen,” Shiiki said. “The thieves cut the locks securing the storage area, opened the switchgear and removed the approximately $75,000 main breaker, which was the final critical component needed to energize the equipment and get the new plant operational. To keep the project on schedule, we ultimately compensated another customer for delaying their shipment so that we could use the identical breaker from their switchgear.”

Given the food-grade facility’s mandate that all installed electrical products meet strict federal regulations for health and safety and be certified by the National Sanitation Foundation, Shiiki said that M2 Integration’s decision to use stainless-steel rigid conduit throughout the build was functional and aesthetic—and complicated. 

“Our installation of custom-designed stainless steel conduit pass-throughs allowed the conduits to traverse the insulated metal panel ceilings and walls seamlessly, ensuring both structural integrity and accessibility,” he said of the resulting hygienic, code­-compliant system that simultaneously enhanced the visual appeal and functional durability of the facility. “But this choice brought an added level of difficulty too, as each conduit had to be precisely cut and installed to maintain both plumb and level, a requirement that demanded exceptional coordination and attention to detail.”

The team navigated other challenges including the stress of a compressed timeline.

“Our original completion date was the end of 2024 based on the shipment dates of all of the products we ordered, and we were on schedule to meet that timing, but then a piece of equipment got delayed in customs,” Shiiki said. “Luckily, we used that time productively to test other pieces of equipment and perform other post-production work until that piece showed up, so we were able to stay on schedule.”

Incomplete final equipment designs presented the team with additional concerns.

“Early electrical rough-in work was executed based solely on preliminary drawings, necessitating future-proofing and extreme accuracy in anticipation of final specs,” Shiiki said. To overcome this issue, “we went out with a laser to secure exact measurements of the building on the front end and created CAD designs of every piece of equipment to determine their optimal placement.” 

He said that the team was able to run pipe work from end to end and drop them in exact places so that everything was ready for installation when the equipment showed up, saving them time on the back end.

“At its peak, we had 25 electricians working diligently to complete a big job in a short time,” Shiiki said.

To streamline construction and ensure timely project completion, the team embraced technology such as CAD to model the inside and outside of the facility before equipment arrived, so they could anticipate potential challenges and prepare for them in advance. 

They also used prefabrication to save valuable time on-site; underground service conduits were preinstalled on large strut brackets to enable easy drop-in placement once excavation work was completed, and lighting brackets and receptacle boxes were preassembled to optimize space and minimize disruptions on the job site. 

Electrical wiring was installed early in the interstitial ceiling space before the arrival of ceilings, walls and equipment, and the final steps of conduit and wiring were completed just in time for each equipment installation. Finally, custom control solutions were developed to integrate and automate the entire production process and ensure synchronous operation between various equipment groups to optimize throughput.

“We had to take 10 major pieces of equipment and connect and automate them so that they would run together seamlessly,” Shiiki said, “but this cohesive electrical and control design has supported consistent and reliable production since startup.”

Food for thought

Following M2 Integration’s completion of the project, Wild Mike’s began producing its pizza bites in-house in early 2025.

“Our team’s attention to detail didn’t go unnoticed, with the client describing the completed electrical system as a ‘work of art’ and praising its precise layout and flawless function,” Shiiki said. 

The middle of the sheeting line and the conveyor belts that
transport the product through every phase of its production.

Quality was a top priority throughout the project, and the team maintained a high standard of workmanship and upheld all code and safety requirements, ensuring long-term reliability and client satisfaction. 

“We’ve done this type of work for Wild Mike’s at other plants of theirs, but the complexity and comprehensiveness of this project was a highlight of our career and we took exceptional care with every detail,” he said.

The end result? “It all works seamlessly and looks great,” Shiiki said.

Looking back, Shiiki and his team are proud of a project they feel embodies the utmost in quality, innovation and safety, while being a cutting-edge facility that meets the production demands of today and is future-ready for continued success in the competitive and fast-paced food manufacturing sector.

“This was one of the most involved projects I’ve worked on based on all of the design required. Every day, a new situation arose or changed, and I spent thousands of hours overseeing everything on this job throughout its duration,” Shiiki said, adding that he had even built an office on-site during construction so he could oversee everyday operations and make the real-time decisions necessary to keep the project running smoothly.

“Everybody involved was happy with the outcome, and our team members and field leaders did a great job. We’re all excited for Wild Mike’s success and thrilled to be a part of it,” Shiiki said, who looks forward to continued work with their longtime partner in the future. “Wild Mike’s intention with this initiative was to increase efficiency and grow market share, and I think that this project was a big step in the right direction.” 

M2 Integration LLC/Wild Mike’s Ultimate Pizza