Join MSPE Western Chapter for our May Meeting with a tour of Burd Fletcher, annual awards, and installation of officers! The tour of Burd Fletcher starts at 3:00 p.m. followed by dinner at Smokehouse BBQ. If you aren't able to make it for the tour, you are still welcome to join for the dinner.
Date:
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Time:
3:00 p.m. - Burd Fletcher Plant Tour
4:30 p.m. - Registration/Networking
5:00 p.m. - Dinner
5:30 p.m. - Installation of Officers
5:45 p.m. - Incoming President's Remarks
Location:
Dinner
Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant
19000 E. 39th st
Independence, MO 64057
Burd Fletcher Plant
5151 East Geospace Drive
Independence, MO 64056
https://burdfletcher.com
Menu:
Order from the menu
Cost:
Members Discretion - Order from menu - Separate checks
Parking and Directions:
See maps below for directions to Burd Fletcher.
Burd Fletcher is located inside the GEOSPACE caves off Salsbury Road in Independence. GPS directions will not take you to the correct location – follow directions on following pages instead.
Traveling to Burd Fletcher - Attendees have 2 options, one to follow the instructions attached and drive to Burd Fletcher, sufficient parking is available near the front door. The other is to meet at Smokehouse BBQ and carpool to Burd Fletcher. Smokehouse is agreeable. Attendees make own arrangements to arrive at Burd Fletcher. Please meet in the Burd Fletcher lobby promptly at 3:00 PM.
PPE Required - Burd Fletcher will provide hairnets for the tour. No other PPE is required.
Cell Phones - While inside the caves, cell phones are inoperable.
Speaker - Jack Knight, Division Vice President - Carton Division Manufacturing
About Burd Fletcher:
Burd & Fletcher is a leading manufacturer of paperboard products from folding cartons to formed paperboard cups, and has been in business over 1230 years and family owned.
Burd & Fletcher’s ownership dates to 1886, spanning six generations. Each generation honors the legacy of those who came before them. Our names are less important than those of our employees whose average tenure exceeds 20 years.
Burd & Fletcher delivers the highest quality printed folding cartons that have ever run over high-speed packaging lines. Our high-speed forming equipment and cutting-edge forms are the best of both worlds when it comes to brands formed paper cups.
Speed-to-market, package quality and integrity, plant efficiency, flexible sourcing and continuous process improvement. Burd Fletcher packages all that in the form of folding paper cartons and formed paper cups for the consumer food industry.
Our customers include Banquet, Kemps, Marie Calendar’s, Belfonte and Orville Redenbacher’s to name a few. Product categories include ice cream, frozen novelty, snack food, frozen food, pizza, pasta, refrigerated beverage-boxed tea.
GREEN is more than just a color in our palette. Our commitment to environmental sustainability is reflected in our supplies, processes and internal ecosystem. We not only talk the talk: we walk the talk. Ninety-nine point eight (99.8) % of wastepaper repurposed or recycled (near zero waste per ton).
Burd & Fletcher Company
5151 E. Geospace Drive, Independence, MO 64056
(located North of I-70, South of 24 Hwy)
*****Please Note******This is an underground facility (Caves) you will not see a physical building from Salisbury Road Entrance
Call before entering facility if you have questions!!
Driving Directions: Take 291 Hwy to E. Salisbury Road
- Turn East on to E. Salisbury Road (you will go a little over 1 mile to our entrance)
- Go past the Independence Athletics Complex (on Left/North side of road)
- Next you will come over a small hill – you will see a “SCHOOL SPEED LIMIT” sign on the right side of the road, there will be a center turn lane directly across from that sign. Turn Left/North on to E. Geospace Drive.
- **Note**, if you pass the Oak Ridge Cemetery (on right/south side of the road) or make it to the Sunshine Center (on left/North), you have gone too far.
- On E. Geospace Drive, there is a sign for the “Space Center”. (you will see red/white signs that say: STOP No Trucks) Follow the road around & down the hill. Turn left, down to the cave entrance. Call before entering facility 816-257-3100
- Once in the cave, you will pass over the railroad tracks. Continue going straight.
- Burd & Fletcher’s main office is the first business front you will come to. It will be on your right, turn in here. Do not go through/past the STOP sign that is on the column
- You can park to the right side of the door, in the visitor parking.
If you need to contact us, the direct dial number is: 816-257-3100 or our main number is 816-257-0291.
Map between Smokehouse BBQ and Burd Fletcher:
Enlarged map showing entrance to caves to get to Burd Fletcher:
