Dive Brief:
- J&J Snack Foods opened its first self-owned cold storage facility in Terrell, Texas, to optimize distribution across the U.S., according to a July 21 emailed press release.
- The 117,000-square-foot facility began operations in June which accommodates 11,000 pallets for frozen food storage, including 22 dock doors to ship products such as Superpretzel, Icee, Luigi's Real Italian Ice and more.
- The company plans to open two more cold storage facilities — one in Arizona and another in New Jersey, VP of Supply Chain Jay Montgomery told Supply Chain Dive in an interview.
Dive Insight:
The food manufacturer is focused on revamping how it manages products in its warehouses.
"The way we operate today is we have the majority of our stock shipping out of 3PL partners — meaning freezers we do not own," Montgomery told Supply Chain Dive
Through it’s Texas self-owned warehouse, J&J is focused on consolidating multiple shipping and storage operations into fewer larger sites, the VP said. “When we do that, we can consolidate all of our stock in these buildings instead of having it spread out across more than a dozen different buildings across the nation.”
The food manufacturer strategically selected locations for its new cold storage facilities. J&J Snack Foods surveyed where most of its business is centered, and determined where it was optimal to add a distribution center on each coast — Texas being at the center.
"These initiatives will simplify our logistics network by moving from over 30 warehouse locations to less than 10, resulting in improved customer service and lower distribution cost," President and CEO Dan Fachner said in an earnings statement.
The maker of ICEE and Dippin’ Dots has targeted cost-cutting in operations and logistics following excessive losses from a failed ERP implementation and higher distribution expenses developed during Q2 of last year.
