Lineage Logistics

The company was founded on April 18, 2012 by American investment firm Bay Grove Capital, LLC, through the consolidation of acquired warehousing and logistics companies,[1] beginning, in December 2008, with the purchase of Seafreeze from Toyo Susian Kaisha. The company then acquired CityIce, in 2009, and Flint River Services, in 2010, followed, in 2011, by Terminal Freezers of Santa Maria, California, and Richmond Cold Storage, purchased from Atlanta Equity; founded in 1907 in Richmond, Virginia, the latter then become its earliest predecessor company.

Lineage Logistics was formed with the fifth largest network of temperature-controlled warehouse facilities in North America, according to International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW) rankings, with 40 facilities in eight states, including near international ports at Savannah, Georgia, Seattle, Washington and Norfolk, Virginia; warehouse management; consulting; and food processing support.[1]

In 2012, the company acquired Stanford Refrigerated Warehouses and Castle & Cooke Cold Storage; Bill Hendricksen of Castle & Cooke then joined Lineage as CEO.[8] Hendricksen was succeeded by W. Gregory Lehmkuhl, in July 2015.[9]

In 2017, Lineage announced moving its headquarters from Irvine, California to Novi, Michigan.[10]

In April 2013, the company received a $220 million loan,[11] and acquired Seattle Cold Storage and a University Park, Illinois facility.

By 2014, most Lineage customers were food producers requiring cold chain warehousing, transportation, and logistics; to meet demand, the company concentrated on automation and acquisition.[12]

In March 2014, the company agreed to purchase Millard Refrigerated Services for about $1 billion, its largest acquisition to date,[12] making Lineage "the second-largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company in the world."[13] Lineage then acquired Loop Cold Storage, Oneida Cold Storage & Warehouse, Murphy Overseas, and two facilities in Watsonville, California from Dreisbach Enterprises and, that September, opened a new temperature-controlled warehouse in Santa Maria, California.[5]

By 2015, Lineage's facility network was ranked the second largest in the world by the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses. With 111 facilities in 21 states, Lineage also ranked as the second largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company in the United States.[9] In January 2015, Lineage scaled its Pacific Northwest facilities with the acquisition of cold storage company Columbia Colstor, headquartered in Moses Lake, Washington.[14]

In May 2016, the company opened a $150 million temperature-controlled warehouse in North Charleston, South Carolina, near the Port of Charleston,[3] then, in August, acquired Consolidated Distribution Corporation of Lombard, Illinois,[9] making Lineage the largest customized redistribution network in the United States.[15] Two months later, it was reported that Lineage was considering locating a large facility at New Century AirCenter in Gardner, Kansas.[16] but the proposed location resulted in lawsuits from local residents,[16] and Lineage scrapped the project in November 2017 "due to a change in customer needs.",[16][17] though the project had received unanimous approval from county commissioners in July.[16][17]

The company purchased facilities from American Cold Storage, in the American Midwest, and eight Los Angeles, California area warehouses from U.S. Growers Cold Storage,[2] raising its employee roster to 7,200, with Lineage operating 120 temperature-controlled storage facilities.[1]

In April 2018, Lineage began building its first fully automated North American facility in Sunnyvale, Texas[18] and, in May, announced expansion to its Henderson, Colorado facility.[4]

During 2018, the company acquired 24 companies, including The Yearsley Group, the UK's largest Cold Storage and Haulage supplier, maintaining its second-largest status.[19] The company also sold minority stakes worth $700 million. Company real estate holdings were estimated at $4 billion in value.[6]

On February 25, 2019 the Wall Street Journal reported the acquisition of Preferred Freezer Services LLC. in a deal reportedly worth over $1 billion in value. Adding Preferred into its holdings expanded Lineage to over 200 facilities across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and at 1.3 billion cubic feet of storage, made it the world's largest facility network.[7]

On July 1, 2020, Lineage acquired Henningsen Cold Storage based in Portland Oregon with 11 cold storage facilities mainly based in Oregon and Washington, with four more in Twin Falls, Idaho; Stillwell, Oklahoma; Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

On December 1, 2020, Lineage acquired Pago, a warehousing, distribution and transport logistics provider in Poland.[20]

Lineage Logistics is headquartered in Novi, Michigan, with offices in San Francisco, California; Irvine, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and Richmond, Virginia. It operates about 100 facilities in North America,[18] including in 23 U.S. states,[19] and warehouses in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Belgium.[21] Its distribution centers include services such as blast freezing of perishable goods.[3]

• Lineage Logistics