Aldi Expanding Distribution Center, Renovating Cold Space

A M King, a design-build firm, is managing a large-scale renovation and expansion at Aldi’s Center Valley (Pennsylvania) distribution center. The project includes additional coolers.

In the Northeast, where land is scarce, the focus is often on renovating and expanding existing facilities. The 60,000 ft² dry warehouse expansion will bring the total square footage at the facility to 575,000 ft². The project also includes new dock positions and a mezzanine that will be housed within the existing building footprint.

The scope of work at the Center Valley facility will cover approximately 60,000 ft² of new dry warehouse space for staging and storing nonperishable product; 47,000 ft² of new coolers inside the existing warehouse; the addition of six cooler dock positions; demolition of an existing freezer wall to streamline operations and air movement; additional battery charging areas and associated ventilation systems; and conversion of a third-party space to a warehouse collaboration room.

Elsewhere, A M King is designing and building a 570,660 ft² regional distribution center in Loxley, Ala., for Aldi.

Firm Developing Cold-Storage Network to Help Food Supply Chain Issues

Arcadia Cold LLC launched a platform to develop a national cold-storage network of facilities across the United States. The company’s first three locations are in Hazelton, Pa.; Atlanta, Ga.; and south Ft. Worth, Texas.

By 2024, Arcadia Cold expects to have added approximately 200,000 pallet positions of refrigerated and frozen capacity to the existing third-party cold-storage market in six important logistical locations to service a substantial part of the U.S. consumer market. Operation at its first three facilities will commence by mid-2023.

Maersk to Open Cold-Storage Facility in New Jersey

Performance Team, a Maersk Co., plans to open a cold-storage facility in Dayton, N.J., in October 2022 to serve imports and exports. Commodities will include fish, poultry, beef, pork, fruits and vegetables.

The 167,812 ft² facility includes 13,000 rack positions, 30 dock doors, a dry sprinkler system, refrigerated dock, trailer plug-ins, in-house clearance, refrigerated and frozen storage, 24-hour monitoring and a backup generator. USDA import/export services, repack, re-boxing, labeling and co-packing are also available.

Site selection was based on close proximity to Maersk’s container port at Elizabeth, N.J., as well as the one-hour drive from the port of Philadelphia.

Cold-Storage Warehouse Expansion Opens in U.K.

Lineage Logistics LLC opened its South East Superhub in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, just 70 miles from central London.

Lineage completed the fully automated warehouse expansion with an additional 45,000 pallet positions in Peterborough, bringing the total capacity to nearly 71,000 pallets. The expanded warehouse creates a strategically positioned South East Superhub, which will serve both retail and food-service customers. The expansion will include sophisticated automation and refrigeration technology, helping to reduce energy consumption and the environmental impact of food distribution.

This investment brings Lineage’s total automated warehouse count in the United Kingdom to six, with a total of 335,000 automated pallet positions.

Smithfield Foods Opens Fully Automated Distribution Center

Smithfield Foods Inc. and Lineage Logistics LLC opened an automated distribution center in Olathe, Kan.

Lineage designed and built the facility to enhance Smithfield’s distribution network. Spanning nearly 20 million ft³ with more than 62,000 pallet positions, the facility includes Lineage’s proprietary blast-cell technology, which it says reduces freeze time and energy use relative to traditional blast cells.

The facility includes 18 automated cranes that move inventory into, out of and within the facility. The facility also includes a large temperature-controlled layer-picking system. Layer-pickers disassemble and reassemble pallets of goods, a process previously performed manually. As a result, robotics and software automate more than 97 percent of the product movement through the facility.