All thawed out
2024 has been an absolute banger year for Lineage. After going public with the most successful IPO of the year, it’s back with yet another acquisition. This time it’s ColdPoint Logistics, a Kansas City, Kansas-based cold storage company.
The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is the largest acquisition since the company went public earlier this year. The new facility is 621,000 square feet and has more than 62,000 pallet positions, seven blast cells and a stand-alone boxing room.
“The acquisition of ColdPoint expands Lineage’s existing presence in the strategic Kansas City area and enhances our ability to provide an efficient solution for customers along the protein corridor, with direct access to major U.S. ports via onsite rail,” said Greg Lehmkuhl, president and CEO of Lineage, in a news release.
Temperature checks
Also hopping on the acquisition bandwagon is Ridgewood Infrastructure. The investment firm that focuses on essential infrastructure in the U.S. announced its investment in Valley Cold Storage & Transportation. Valley Cold is a temperature-controlled storage logistics company.
“Ridgewood Infrastructure is excited to welcome Valley Cold to our portfolio,” said Ross Posner, managing partner at Ridgewood. “This acquisition aligns with our strategy of investing in essential infrastructure that supports critical supply chains. We’ve been evaluating the cold storage space for some time and what [CEO and founder] Clay [Bush] and Jenny have built is special. We are looking forward to helping Valley Cold realize its growth potential.”
The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed. Given that the cold storage industry has seen rapid growth, it’s likely only a matter of time till we see headlines about others making similar investments.
Food and drug
Chocolate pasta is certainly a choice. It has the possibility to be sweet and delicious or texturally uncomfortable and confusing. Leaning into the former is Pastazerts, a startup focused on chocolate ravioli desserts. The unique brand is starting a round of funding to scale up and bring the frozen treats to the masses.
A Food Business News article says, “The company, which has been bootstrapping since launching, is aiming to raise between $25,000 to $30,000. The raise will help Pastazerts fund its co-manufacturer, distribution, inventory purchasing, in-store demonstrations and upcoming trade shows.”
Stephanie Berwick, co-founder of Pastazerts, said, “We could not even fit one pallet worth of 48 cases in this commercial kitchen frozen storage. We were really limited by the storage and we were limited by the number of hours and how long it took us to produce. It took us five minutes to produce two units.”
The raviolis come frozen and are currently offered in two flavors: strawberry cheesecake and peanut butter and jelly.
Cold chain lanes
National reefer rejection rates are double what they were at this time last year, remaining above 15% for most of the past month. Thanksgiving week typically marks the beginning of Christmas tree season, which impacts the Northwest more than any other region of the country. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, most Christmas trees sold in the U.S. are sourced from Oregon and North Carolina. Trees grown in the Northwest generally need to travel much farther, supplying a broad portion of the West Coast. In contrast, trees from North Carolina tend to stay within the region, as the Northeast has a higher density of tree farms.
Every other region has also experienced year-over-year increases, signaling a more balanced and potentially sustainable tightening across the refrigerated truckload market. For example, West Coast rejection rates were around 4% at this time last year but now exceed 17%. Similarly, Midwest rejection rates have risen to approximately 15%, up from just under 8% in 2023. This data suggests the market is experiencing more than the usual seasonal fluctuations.
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Wanna chat in the cooler? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at [email protected].
See you on the internet.
Mary
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The post Running on Ice: Acquisitions and frozen ravioli desserts appeared first on FreightWaves.
