Lineage and Americold Logistics are by far the largest refrigerated warehousing and logistics providers in North America—in fact in the world—according to the latest ranking from the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA).
GCCA, which is an industry association representing all major industries engaged in temperature-controlled warehousing, logistics and transportation, publishes an annual list that ranks the total capacity of temperature-controlled space operated by GCCA Warehouse Members.
For the North American region, that list is topped by Lineage (2.1 billion cubic feet), Americold (1.28 billion cubic feet), and United States Cold Storage Inc. (405 million cubic feet). The rest of the top 10 include: Interstate Warehousing Inc., FreezPak Logistics, Vertical Cold Storage, Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics, Conestoga Cold Storage, Congebec Inc., and NewCold Holdings LLC.
Although it operates less than one-twentieth the amount of warehouse space that Lineage does, Kansas City, Missouri-based Vertical Cold Storage said its sixth-place ranking shows swift growth from last year’s 15th place spot.
The company, which is sponsored by real estate investment firm Platform Ventures, now has more than 77 million cubic feet of capacity in nine locations and employs more than 400 full-time team members. In the past 12 months, Vertical Cold acquired MWCold in Indiana, purchased a second facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, and is currently finishing the construction of its first distribution center in the Kansas City market.
“It’s been a great year for Vertical Cold, with expansion in new and existing markets,” West Hutchison, president and CEO of Vertical Cold Storage, said in a release. “Our growth platform is strong. There will be continued growth through acquisition, expansion, and development in pursuit of our goal to have a national network that embraces the complexities of our customers, which many of our competitors avoid or price their way out of.”
