Baloian expands facility to accommodate ongoing growth
Baloian expands facility to accommodate ongoing growth
FRESNO, CA -- "We are in a growth pattern," said Tim Baloian, president of Baloian Farms, here. "We need more space. We increase volume steadily," and during certain months of the year, "the facility we are in is way too small. So we needed more physical space."
To meet those immediate needs and to accommodate anticipated future growth, the company began construction about a year ago on a 50,000- square-foot cold storage facility that is now nearing completion. Already, some of the new cold rooms were in use when The Produce News visited the facility in late September.
The new cooler is located about three miles from Baloian's existing offices and cold storage facility, on a 64-acre site already occupied by a bell pepper packinghouse where the company packs green and red bell peppers. The new construction adjoins the packinghouse so that product coming off the two packinglines can be brought directly into the cooler, rather than having to make the three-mile trip to the existing cooler as in the past.
According to Mr. Baloian, the new facility has "six different cold rooms" which allow for up to six different temperature zones. "Two of these rooms are for precool and stocking, and the other four are just for stocking only," he said.
The new cooler has eight loading bays, a "much larger dock space" than the existing facility, including "a huge area just to stage orders," and much wider hallways, all of which are refrigerated, Mr. Baloian said. The hallways and staging areas are kept between 45 and 50 degrees. The cold rooms are generally kept at 45 degrees or at 34 degrees "depending on the commodity we have in there," he said. "So it gives us a lot of flexibility to handle different types of commodities."
The existing cold storage facility was built in the spring of 1994, he said. It was designed and installed by Neil Simpson, plant engineer for Baloian Farms, who also designed and is overseeing construction of the new building.
"We have learned some things" in 12 years of experience with the existing facility, Mr. Baloian said. One was to make the hallways and staging areas larger. Another was to increase the coil area on the refrigeration units, thus reducing the temperature differential between the air being drawn into the coils and the air coming out of the coils. "It is just easier on the product," he said. It allows for faster cooling of the product, and it does not remove as much moisture in the process, he explained.
The refrigeration system has "lots of horsepower," he said. "We have a series of compressors where if one goes down, we have extra compressors" that can be brought on line by switching a few valves, thus eliminating any downtime. The entire system can be monitored and controlled from a remote location on a laptop computer. "I'm excited about being able to check [room temperatures] any hour of the day and ... lower them or raise them from my laptop," Mr. Baloian said.
The new facility's large staging area will allow the company to get trucks in and out much more quickly, he said. "When a customer's truck comes, we back them in and we get them right out." There is "a real value in being able to set up orders" and reduce loading time.
Currently, no racking has been installed in the new cooler, but there are plans to do so, not only in the cold rooms but in the wide hallways. "We will operate here a season before we start racking and understand where we want them to go," he said.
Construction on another adjoining building was scheduled to start next year. That building will be used for receiving field-packed products.
Except for peppers and a few cucumbers, "most everything else is field packed," Mr. Baloian said. The company's field-packed products include leaf lettuces and melons.
"We will eventually move the offices out here too" into a building that is yet to be built. But "we want to get the other buildings done first," he said.
To meet those immediate needs and to accommodate anticipated future growth, the company began construction about a year ago on a 50,000- square-foot cold storage facility that is now nearing completion. Already, some of the new cold rooms were in use when The Produce News visited the facility in late September.
The new cooler is located about three miles from Baloian's existing offices and cold storage facility, on a 64-acre site already occupied by a bell pepper packinghouse where the company packs green and red bell peppers. The new construction adjoins the packinghouse so that product coming off the two packinglines can be brought directly into the cooler, rather than having to make the three-mile trip to the existing cooler as in the past.
According to Mr. Baloian, the new facility has "six different cold rooms" which allow for up to six different temperature zones. "Two of these rooms are for precool and stocking, and the other four are just for stocking only," he said.
The new cooler has eight loading bays, a "much larger dock space" than the existing facility, including "a huge area just to stage orders," and much wider hallways, all of which are refrigerated, Mr. Baloian said. The hallways and staging areas are kept between 45 and 50 degrees. The cold rooms are generally kept at 45 degrees or at 34 degrees "depending on the commodity we have in there," he said. "So it gives us a lot of flexibility to handle different types of commodities."
The existing cold storage facility was built in the spring of 1994, he said. It was designed and installed by Neil Simpson, plant engineer for Baloian Farms, who also designed and is overseeing construction of the new building.
"We have learned some things" in 12 years of experience with the existing facility, Mr. Baloian said. One was to make the hallways and staging areas larger. Another was to increase the coil area on the refrigeration units, thus reducing the temperature differential between the air being drawn into the coils and the air coming out of the coils. "It is just easier on the product," he said. It allows for faster cooling of the product, and it does not remove as much moisture in the process, he explained.
The refrigeration system has "lots of horsepower," he said. "We have a series of compressors where if one goes down, we have extra compressors" that can be brought on line by switching a few valves, thus eliminating any downtime. The entire system can be monitored and controlled from a remote location on a laptop computer. "I'm excited about being able to check [room temperatures] any hour of the day and ... lower them or raise them from my laptop," Mr. Baloian said.
The new facility's large staging area will allow the company to get trucks in and out much more quickly, he said. "When a customer's truck comes, we back them in and we get them right out." There is "a real value in being able to set up orders" and reduce loading time.
Currently, no racking has been installed in the new cooler, but there are plans to do so, not only in the cold rooms but in the wide hallways. "We will operate here a season before we start racking and understand where we want them to go," he said.
Construction on another adjoining building was scheduled to start next year. That building will be used for receiving field-packed products.
Except for peppers and a few cucumbers, "most everything else is field packed," Mr. Baloian said. The company's field-packed products include leaf lettuces and melons.
"We will eventually move the offices out here too" into a building that is yet to be built. But "we want to get the other buildings done first," he said.
