Customer Description

Our customer is a food distributor in the Mid-Atlantic region serving their own chain of international grocery stores.

 Problem/Inquiry

As our customer continued to add new stores throughout the Mid-Atlantic, fueled by organic growth and growth from the COVID-19 pandemic, they needed additional distribution and warehouse capacity. They operated an existing 75,000 square foot dry goods warehouse in which they needed to maximize their storage capacity and they were also adding about 60,000 square feet of cooler and freezer space onto their facility. In the dry goods space, the customer had an existing rack system that they wanted to reuse. In the cooler and freezer space, they needed a rack system designed and implemented that would yield the maximum number of pallet positions. The layout of the new cooler and freezer space as well as varying clear heights presented a unique challenge.

 Solution

Mezzanine Distributors worked together with the customer to design solutions that would optimize the number of pallet positions in both the dry goods warehouse and the new cooler and freezer spaces. 

Our designed systems and complete turnkey offering included the following:

• Selective pallet rack materials designed and engineered for the specific layout and location
• End of aisle protectors to reduce likelihood of rack damage
• Pallet supports for more secure pallet storage
• Roughly 3,000 new pallet positions
• Timely and consistent communication which led to a seamless installation
• Fully engineered, permitted, and inspected systems

First, we focused on the dry goods space. The existing racking needed to be re-oriented in the opposite direction and new racking needed to be added to fill out the space. This was also an active operation and communication and planning of the work to be performed was critical. We worked with our customer and our installer to develop a plan that provided the least amount of disruption to their operation. We built the new portion of rack which allowed our customer to move pallets from the existing rack to the new rack. We then tore down the existing rack, re-oriented it, and reinstalled it to complete the build.

Second, we optimized the design for the new cooler and freezer spaces. We took into account varying ceiling heights (from 16’ - 32’), lift truck reach capabilities, and building obstructions such as cooling unit placement and building column placement. With an accepted layout, we completed the installation in a timely and efficient manner.

Mezzanine Distributors also completed all necessary permits, permit drawings, and inspections for these systems. Our customer received a CO shortly after completion and was ready to use their new, additional storage capacity.

Each turnkey storage system project presents its various challenges but the Mezzanine Distributors team was once again able to supply a custom designed system and implement it with limited impact to our customers’ operation.