Vertical Cold Storage says it is set to disrupt the temperature-controlled storage industry with customer-specific logistics solutions paired with the latest automation and technology.
The South Dakota-based full-service provider is backed by real estate asset manager Platform Ventures and led by former Cloverleaf Cold Storage executives, who say temp-controlled storage has “become a commodity” for many cold-chain companies, leading to “deteriorating service levels, increased waste and reduced supply chain efficiency.”
“We bring a reputation for service and dedication to making our customers’ businesses as strong as possible,” said Curt Mastbergen, president of Vertical Cold Storage and former president of Cloverleaf. “At Vertical Cold Storage we will build on that focus and leverage technology and systems integration to ensure our partners can deliver exactly what they want, when they want and where they want it with optimal efficiency.”
Vertical said it is building its initial cold storage facilities in Nebraska and Kansas, with others to be announced shortly. The company also is pursuing an acquisition strategy in several markets. “We will grow with our customers, where and how they need us to grow,” Mastbergen said.
The key features of Vertical facilities include frozen, refrigerated and dry storage, blast freezing, exports, case picking, rail transloading, simple EDI setup, real-time inventory access, standard processes across all locations and value-added reporting capabilities. Automation for the new facilities is being designed and implemented by an industry leader focused on increasing inventory availability, efficiency and throughput performance.
“At Vertical Cold, we are starting with a clean slate, so our facilities will have automation that is the most reliable and productive in the industry, deploy the safest and most cost-effective refrigeration systems and use the latest green best practices,” said Ken Smith, senior vice president of Vertical and former vice president of operations for Cloverleaf.
“We will also train our teams to drive performance at every level of the supply chain. On the technology side, we will turn data from all parts of the organization into decision-quality information for our customers.”
Platform Ventures, the financial backers of Vertical Cold, has a history of real estate investments, from office space and hospitality to residential.
“Cold storage is one of the most exciting sectors in commercial real estate today and the pandemic has only served to intensify its growth,” said Ryan Anderson, co-president and co-founder of Platform. “We were already very interested in the business pre-COVID, but needed the operational experience to create a business model that reduces labor costs through automation and improves performance through decision-making technology.
“We found that expertise with the Vertical Cold leadership team, and are now on a journey to build a continent-wide network of customer-focused operations.”
