Compass Cold, a new public refrigerated warehousing (PRW) company based in Mulberry, Arkansas, has announced plans for the construction of a 70,000-square-foot cold storage facility near Fort Smith. It is being designed and will be built by Melbourne, Florida-headquartered Ti Cold. Members of each company meeting recently to officially kick off the project are pictured above (left to right: Logan Stuller, Jeff and Debbie Winstead, Darren Winstead, Candice and Doug Bowen, Rob Adams and Sam Tippmann).
Featuring state-of-the-art freezing and refrigeration technology, the warehouse will have plenty of capacity to support food producers, wholesalers and retailers in central and northwest Arkansas.
Compass Cold owners Darren Winstead and Doug Bowen have been involved in the transportation sector for some time and have deep relationships within the food industry, especially in the Southeastern region of the United States. Doug’s Produce is a fully functional trucking company.
The new cold storage complex will feature a flexible, convertible design able to maintain temperatures ranging from -20°F to +40°F. Structural steel racks will offer over 8,500 pallet positions. This includes a QFM In-Rack Freezing System, which combines blast freezing technology and pallet racking. QFM freezes pallets up to four times faster than traditional blast freezers, with the ability to reduce energy consumption by as much as 50%.
“This is an exciting new opportunity and a natural fit with our existing distribution services,” said Bowen. “The new cold storage warehouse will allow us to better serve the clients who have been with us a long time, while branching out to help future customers.”
In addition to storage space, the Compass Cold facility will provide frozen and refrigerated food distributors, processors, and importers in the region direct access to Doug’s Produce temperature controlled less than a truckload shipping programs.
“We are excited to develop and deliver this project to help expand an already very successful trucking and distribution business into a top flight 3PL solution,” said Rob Adams of Ti Cold. “It will enable Compass to give clients the ability to pick, pack and ship their products directly from the facility. Providing warehousing, order processing, shipping and receiving gives customers an option to fulfill orders quickly and efficiently.”
