Food Logistics

NOV-DEC 2013

Food Logistics serves the entire food supply chain industry with targeted content for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.

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C O V E R S T O R Y New Rail Services Target Food Shippers T lations packaged in Tetra Paks, making it a highly sustainable product on several fronts. By CNP's estimates, CalNaturale wines have half the carbon footprint of glass bottles. CNP's success over the years did come with one problem—albeit a 'good' one— which prompted Mitchell to go back to the drawing board to create a warehousing automation solution that could meet his requirements for reducing costs, increasing productivity, and improving sustainability. His quest for such an advanced automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) led to years of development and testing, even at his own CNP facility. In 2000, Mitchell founded Power Automation Systems (PAS) and introduced PowerStor to the market. According to PAS' Web site, PowerStor Photo © McKay TransCold he last quarter of 2013 saw a flurry of activity in the rail sector, in particular, new services targeting food shippers. Green Express (GX) started its rollout in November with two dedicated express trains per week moving refrigerated and dry goods between Florida's Port of Tampa and the Chicago/Kingsbury, Ind. area—a 56-hour one-way transit. The new GX express service is operated by CSX Transportation. "CSX is proud to support the trend toward more rail shipments of fresh produce by offering a creative and flexible pipeline from the farm to the table," noted Belinda Hess, director of marketing for Food & Consumer at CSX Transportation. It's expected that northbound trains will primarily carry imported fruit from Latin America to the Midwest, while return trains will transport beef, pork and other products to the Port of Tampa for export to foreign markets. McKay TransCold's TransCold Express will launch in early 2014 with dedicated, refrigerated boxcar trains between California and the Midwest. TransCold Express will operate on BNSF Railway's network using the railroad's 72-foot refrigerated boxcars (see photo). The service will accommodate truckload, carload, and less-than-truckload (the first time a cross-country rail service will offer LTL). According to Jason Spafford, vice president of business development, TransCold Express brings a new level of efficiency and sustainability to shippers. It provides a 75 percent reduction in the carbon footprint over truck; accommodates direct store delivery and multi-vendor consolidation from hubs; and features new cellular refrigeration tracking on all cars. More information on TransCold Express is available at www.McKayTransCold. com. This spring will also see the launch of Tiger Cool Express, another player who sees plenty of potential in the temperature-controlled intermodal market. Tom Finkbiner, CEO, says the trend of retailers buying fruits and vegetables directly from the farmers (a model pioneered by Wal-Mart), is helping drive interest in rail services such as Tiger Cool Express. Initially, the service will launch with 200 53-foot containers and add to its fleet over the next three to five years. Tiger Cool Express has agreements will all the Class I railroads and will focus on produce shipments greater than 1,000 miles. is the world's most innovative automated warehouse storage solution and the most sustainable too, delivering the highest density, highest throughput and greatest flexibility of any system on the market. The bold claims are substantiated by the caliber of clients the company has attracted, which includes the likes of Pepsi, Trinchero Family Estates, Biery Cheese, Maple Leaf, Ralcorp and Coca-Cola, to name a few. PAS has 15 systems installed at locations throughout Europe, Mexico and the U.S., and is expanding further, points out Rodney Tipton, president of PAS. Clients have realized a number of benefits with PAS' systems, specifically a 60 percent increase in pallet storage; an 80 percent reduction in operating expenses associated with labor, fork trucks and energy consumption; and less shrinkage from product damage and lost inventory. Tipton, who joined CNP in 2001, assumed the role of president at PAS in 2010 and worked together with Mitchell to develop and build the first PowerStor automated cart and lift-based automated storage and retrieval system (CTVL-AS/RS). Most recently, his focus has been preparing for the launch of CNP's new automated warehouse, which sits directly across the two-lane highway from the food manufacturing and packaging facility in Lathrop. During a site visit by Food Logistics in November, Tipton offered a look inside the new automated warehouse, which was nearly complete and just about ready to 'go live.' Fresh? Now you can tell! Infrata shtime for Perisha TM s www.infrata .com 22 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com

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