All thawed out
Another month, another expansion for Lineage. Following the largest IPO of the year, the cold chain giant celebrated the opening of its fully automated cold storage warehouse in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. The new warehouse joins the 80-plus facilities in the network of automated warehouses.
The new facility is 386,000 square feet and includes about 85,000 pallet positions. It’s ideal for temperature-controlled food products. Lineage isn’t kidding when it says the warehouse is peak automation. The facility has automated cranes and rail-guided vehicles to store, move and retrieve products – not to mention the automated receiving process that speeds up unloading times while also improving accuracy.
“Finding solutions to problems in the food supply chain by using innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Lineage,” said Sudarsan Thattai, chief information officer and chief transformation officer. “To us, innovation is not just a buzzword but a driving force behind our efforts to create a better and stronger supply chain. The new fully automated Hazleton facility marks another significant addition to our automated network, furthering our purpose of delivering food safely and reliably to millions of families around the globe.”
Temperature checks
Another week, another acquisition. This week Portabull Cold Storage acquired Portable Refrigeration Storage Inc. The companies both specialize in electric-powered temporary on-site cold storage units, and the acquisition welcomes Portabull to the Southeast.
Portabull President John Herman said in a news release, “Especially now, when sustainability and efficiency are such crucial objectives, Portabull is unique in our ability to serve a variety of customers with many different solutions. Electric-powered cold storage helps businesses maintain, smooth, and expand operations without spending too much or creating excessive waste.”
Portabull now becomes the only single-source provider of electric-powered temporary on-site cold storage solutions in all 48 contiguous states. I’m sure they’ll make it to the other two sooner or later.
Food and drug
The one time of the year that food pairings are not to be messed with is around Thanksgiving. Everyone has traditions and there’s a whole argument as to what should be featured at Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t worry, though: Two fan favorites of the freezer aisle have really thrown caution to the wind with their new products for Thanksgiving.
Starting off is the return of the Thanksgiving pizza courtesy of DiGiorno. This monstrosity has “Roasted turkey, gravy, green beans, cranberries, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses plus a crispy onion topping loaded on top of Detroit-style crust.” For those who remember last year’s version, the company revised the recipe and removed the sweet potatoes. What a blessing to us all.
Moving over to Baskin-Robbins, its capital offense this year is the new ice cream flavor “Brie My Guest” and the “Turkey Cake.” Brie My Guest is “a combination of brie and burrata flavored ice creams, mixed with almonds and pistachio pieces and apricot swirls.” The Turkey Cake is a bit more palatable. It’s an ice cream, of your choice, cake covered in a caramel praline glaze and sugar cone legs. It’s a normal cake in the shape of a turkey. It can be preordered now through Nov. 15.
Cold chain lanes
This week’s market under a microscope heads to the heart of the pharmaceutical cold chain world, Indianapolis. Reefer capacity is finally loosening after a rough mid-October as reefer outbound tender volumes saw the highest levels since April and reefer outbound tender rejections hit a new high for the year. Both ROTVI and the ROTRI are dropping after making waves. The ROTVI is down 13.76% week over week, and the ROTRI is down to 15.63% from 18.71% w/w, a drop of 299 basis points.
Spot rates should still be elevated in this market as rejections have consistently been above 10%. Typically, when rejections consistently are above 10%, it’s a sign of an inflationary spot market. Anything near 20% indicates a severely inflated market. That’s not a bad market for reefer carriers if they’re looking for more work that might be a touch more profitable.
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Shelf life
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Wanna chat in the cooler? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at moconnell@freightwaves.com.
See you on the internet.
Mary
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