Expansion is on the mind of those at Four Seasons Family of Cos. Inc. The Ephrata, PA-based company will be adding a 130,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse to its current facility in May, that when finished, will offer 39 new dock doors.

“It will allow us to have a flow-through warehouse. Right now, we have 39 doors and with the new 39, we can receive on one side of the building and ship on the other,” said Jason Hollinger, president and CEO of the company. “We see a lot of efficiencies with that.”

The idea of opening a larger warehouse first started percolating pre-pandemic, and Four Seasons decided to go forth with the project in 2020.

“Our customers are growing and so are we,” Hollinger said. “We have a lot of independent grocery stores Four Seasons Produce serves, and those are healthy and growing. We see many of them opening up new stores and creating higher store counts. We want to be ready to handle that and grow with them, so they don’t have to go elsewhere.”

The current facility is fully utilized, so the expanded growth provides an ability to take on more customers — those it’s had to say “no” to or hold off in recent years.

“We also will have a 32-degree Fahrenheit section of the warehouse, where now our lowest temperatures are at 34 and our dock is at 40,” Hollinger said. “Our new receiving area will include a 32-degree dock to keep the cold chain even tighter, for berries specifically. We see that as a really strong feature.”

Jonathan K. Steffy, vice president and general manager for Four Seasons, sees the warehouse as providing a long runway to grow with its customers over the next five-10 years.

“It’s also going to be a great space for our people to work in,” he said. “It will release some of the strain of our 24-7 business.”

Four Seasons Produce makes next-day deliveries to hundreds of customers throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions via its sister company, Sunrise Transport and Sunrise Logistics, which services growers or food manufactures with 3PL services of freight, storage, re-pack, cross-dock and inspection services.

“We’ve seen a good increase in logistics demand, as customers really enjoy our produce-focus,” Hollinger said. “Many 3PLs offer logistics, but not all understand both produce and logistics services.”

Overall for the company, 2022 has gotten off to a strong start, even with the increased costs that are plaguing the produce industry. Hollinger points to labor and fuel prices as major issues, though the company is just about fully staffed in 2022, with close to 850 associates in the warehouse.

“We have an all-company effort to make sure this is a great place to work,” he said. “This year, we feel we’re in a much stronger situation.”

The long-term vision of Four Seasons Family of Companies is to be the most capable, valued and thriving organization in fresh.

The capability that will come with the new warehouse will only add to its success in these ways.