KENNETT SQUARE, PA — This year has been eventful for Manfredi Cold Storage. “We have wrapped up loose ends and it’s worked quite well,” said Frank Manfredi, company president.

A 45,000-square-foot “loose end” was a temperature-controlled warehouse addition to Manfredi’s “Building 3.” This extension of an existing 70,000-square-foot facility was completed on April 1. “We stopped construction for six weeks when the property next door came up for sale. With the purchase of that land, we added a footer for future expansion” that will make Building 3 another 135,000 square feet larger.

Jaclyn (Jackie) Basciani, account manager, with her father, Frank Manfredi, who is president of Manfredi Cold Storage.Manfredi Cold Storage will operate 425,000 square feet of cold storage warehousing when Building 3 is completed. The firm will have the capacity to hold 33,000 pallets. There is an abundance of business to fill the space, he noted.

On March 1 this year, a $400,000, 30-month-long software upgrade project was completed. “It’s cutting edge,” Manfredi indicated. The software has the flexibility to communicate with customers’ systems and give them complete information of their product held in Manfredi warehouses.

Manfredi’s software is so detailed that it can track the productivity of individual workers. “We know who touched product and for how long. We reward workers for moving product very efficiently. It’s a benefit to everybody here.” He added, “We are fortunate that our (employee) turnover is very, very light, to say the least.”

Tying up another loose end this year, Manfredi’s sister company, International Repack, expanded its produce repacking services with new equipment. This includes a new “Volm” brand apple-bagging line and a Daumar citrus-bagging line.

Other sister companies of Manfredi Cold Storage are Manfredi Logistics and Inland Transportation Corp. The transportation services are now further extended by a truck brokerage. Manfredi said this “started slow. But we’re gaining steam. We get more business every month.”

In yet another development, Manfredi is now receiving rail cars for its customers. A rail spur has service into the cold chain controlled Building 3. In early June, the firm received its first rail shipment of potatoes. That program will begin in a big way with new-crop potatoes starting from the West this fall.

An end of Manfredi’s business that has hung loose for years is a company-owned commercial property off of exit seven of Interstate 295, southbound, in New Jersey. Manfredi has waited for the right time to build a warehouse to most-efficiently serve the New Jersey side of the Delaware River’s imported fruit trade. “We are seeing something coming to fruition. There may be an opportunity there,” he said. “If this starts, it will be in early 2015 and we would open in late 2015.”

Manfredi is a member of the Ship Philly First effort, which is currently developing direct trade with the seaport of Veracruz, Mexico. “I think this can be a grand slam,” Manfredi indicated.

He credits Fred Sorbello, who launched Ship Philly First “for his insight into the matter and his tireless dedication to get everybody together. This is really something. I think we talked about this five years ago. Now we’re talking again and it seems plausible. It’s only a matter of time until that ship takes off.” Manfredi expected Mexican mangos and avocados to be key commodities coming from Veracruz. “Avocados and mangos are becoming staple items like tomatoes or potatoes. We have the infrastructure already here. I think this is a real opportunity. It’s not ‘if,’ it’s ‘when.’“

Manfredi said that the ports of the Delaware River “can grow significantly” in their handling of produce trade. “There has been a lot of talk” about ports in the Mid-Atlantic, or in Savannah or Miami trying to take some of Philadelphia’s produce import business. No doubt, each location offers something,” he said. But the rules limiting a trucker’s legal day’s drive “will not be changing any time soon,” which leaves the ports nestled around the Keystone State in a powerful logistical position. There are also the efficiencies of volume coming into Delaware River seaports.

While fresh produce is the core category for the Manfredi businesses, about a third of the firm’s volume is food stuffs, such as baked goods and dairy products. The food stuffs help balance Manfredi operations ranging from cash flow to labor.