Niagara based Vineland Growers Co-operative has opened doors of a newly expanded warehouse and storage distribution centre in Canada.
Located at Virgil, the facility has been expanded to 30,000sqft and features a dozen new shipping bays and cold storage space.
It has allocated 15,600ft2 for cold storage which along with the shipping bays, has an advanced racking-system to enable product flow from inside and outside of the plant in what has been claimed to be in an efficient first-in and first out manner.
Vineland Growers general manager Mike Ecker said: “On any given day, this site will see 40,000 boxes of fruit flow through this facility.”
Four of the eight cold storage compartments in the expanded facility have been equipped with a feature dubbed Controlled Atmosphere (CA) from the Netherlands.
According to the Vineland Growers operations manager Dave Lepp Vineland, the CA component regulates the temperature and the oxygen amount in the space. It will also bring down oxygen levels to as low as 1% to maximize efficiency and quality.
Vineland Growers director George Lepp said: “Our team not only managed a smooth transition during this time, but at the end of the day we also managed to come in under budget.”
The expansion is expected to grow the business of Vineland Growers globally by importing products from different countries while operating throughout the year.
Established in 1913, Vineland Growers has over 300 members, mostly from the Niagara region, who produce tender fruit and grape.
The Canadian co-operative supplies fresh local produce in the Niagara region in collaboration with its farmer members.
