CrowleyFresh, Crowley Maritime Corp. and Customized Brokers’ newest cold storage facility located in Miami opened in early 2013. Business at the new facility took off quickly and has grown exponentially since.

Ken Black, general manager of logistics for CrowleyFresh is now based in Miami to oversee the operation. He has been with Crowley for 15 years, all of that time in the logistics division, moving up the ranks over the years from an IT solutions-driven position and then to a hybrid of operations and solutions management, such as engineering. Three years ago he was appointed manager of the Crowley operation at the company’s Jacksonville, FL, headquarters, and in January he relocated to Miami to manage the new CrowleyFresh division.

Ken BlackBlack said that the addition of CrowleyFresh cold storage division and its new 40,000-square-foot refrigerated state-of-the-art warehouse is just minutes from the Miami International Airport.

“CrowleyFresh is completely dedicated to the importation, special handling, repackaging, transshipment and air freighting to and from major global distribution centers in Europe and the Far East,” said Black. “This facility’s services include the highly important unbroken cold chain services from farm to shelf, assuring and certifying the quality of the produce delivered.”

The new Miami operation is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is fully equipped with controlled-atmosphere coolers that are stocked with anything that requires refrigeration, including wine, flowers, fruits and vegetables — products that will, in short time, be placed on insulated pallets to maintain the correct temperatures while being transported to the final destinations.

“Our full logistics package includes trucking from farms in foreign countries to ports of exit and ocean or air transportation to U.S. ports of entry,” noted Black. “Our Customized Brokers division is always prepared for in-house customs clearance, cold facility distribution and delivery to customers’ distribution centers — the entire time maintaining that integral cold supply chain.”

All services at CrowleyFresh are provided around the clock, seven days a week under the Crowley logistics’ control tower.

“Our services are developed specifically to improve and enhance our customers’ businesses, and they are structured so that each individual customer can utilize the services they need at any time,” Black added.

The CrowleyFresh facility features high-tech multiple humidity- and temperature-controlled coolers that include forced-air precooling. It is constantly storing and handling perishables imported from or exported to Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the Far East.

“The state-of-the-art facility is ideal for perishable storage or may be used as an in-transit consolidation or deconsolidation point,” said Black. “With 400,000 total cubic feet of refrigerated space, the facility also offers additional storage space for cargo supplies and non-refrigerated materials.

Black noted, “Strategically we’re finding that some customers have a need to combine dry and cold storage on one refer, such as fresh produce that requires cooling, and packaging or point-of-sale materials that do not. We are able to separate refer space to accommodate such needs.”

CrowleyFresh, Crowley Maritime Corp. and Customized Brokers will have numerous staff members on hand at the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit in New Orleans in October. The companies will combine their efforts and services to share them with visitors at booth number 3749.