Cold storage, whether we know it or not, is an integral part of our everyday lives. Tens of millions of people depend on a complexinterplay of storing, picking, packing, transportation, and custom-brokerage services to have bags of frozen peas, fresh lobster, or racks of ribs at their doorsteps in a matter of hours.
Read also: Why Sustainable Cold Chains Are the Future of Global Food Transport
A centuries-old industry, the pandemic opened the world’s eyes to the fragility of supply chains and the lasting effect of stubborn bottlenecks. Lineage is the world’s largest cold-storage operator by capacity, and on the heels of its initial public offering in July, the company’s beginnings are a great example of how technology and data can radically transform the efficient and predictable transport of perishable items across unimaginable distances.
Running temperature-controlled warehouses was historically not a very sophisticated undertaking. When the founders of Lineage began to acquire warehouses, one of the first things that raised antennas was the number of trucks transporting half-filled trailers. The waste was notable, and in a matter of a decade, the implementation of autonomous forklifts and similar tools both reduced the reliance on manual labor but also complemented existing systems to speed up processes and minimize human error.
Since 2008, Lineage has made 116 acquisitions and currently operates roughly 2.1 billion cubic feet of temperature-controlled space in North America (Mexico excluded). Americans enjoy fresh fruit pastries year-round. One big reason they can partake in strawberry breakfast pastries is the ability of Lineage and others to cold store, transport, and work with regional delivery providers to bring the product to the local store before it expires.
For a strawberry product to travel from California across the country to New York, the strawberries are first harvested in Oxnard, blast-frozen at 20°F, and stored at 0°F. A manufacturer then awaits the refrigerated boxcar delivery, who in turn makes the frozen pastries. The pastries are then packed for transport and, in the case of Lineage, dispatched to one of seven regional distribution centers across the United States.
Post-World War II, concentrated orange juice began appearing on US grocery shelves. Shortly thereafter, the fish stick and TV dinner landed, prompting more Americans to invest in refrigerators and freezers. Once manufacturers could count on their customers’ cold-storage capabilities, the supply of frozen goods skyrocketed. Thanks to cold storage, tomatoes are available in the winter.
In 2023, frozen food sales hit $74 billion. This was 7.9% higher than the previous year and an impressive 33% higher than in 2019. Speed is everything in the cold storage business, and Lineage’s use of data to accelerate everything from pallet receiving and retrieval to passing safety checks and finally making it to the truck is unmatched. It now makes sense why Lineage’s initial public offering was the largest so far this year.
