Performance Team opening cold storage facility in New Jersey

Maersk North America announced Monday its Performance Team will open a nearly 168,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Dayton, New Jersey, in October to serve imports and exports of such commodities as fish, poultry, beef, pork, fruits and vegetables.

“We’re adding more cold chain capacity to serve the New York/New Jersey metropolitan-area demand. This intergrates with Maersk’s ocean services and their first port of call in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the consumption patterns generated by the 20 million consumers who live within the metropolitan area,” Jason Walker, executive vice president of operations for Performance Team – A Maersk Company, said in the announcement.

Maersk said it can provide end-to-end supply chain solutions with its ships calling its APM Terminals Elizabeth, followed by clearance through Maersk Customs Services and finally storage, fulfillment distribution and inland transportation through Performance Team, which A.P. Moller – Maersk (OCTUS: AMKBY) acquired in April 2020 in a $545 million acquisition.  

“Cold chain business in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area continues strong and our plans are to expand supply chain capacity in this market to serve the growth aspirations of our exporters and importers with our integrated model,” said Diogo Lobo, regional head of cold chain for Maersk North America.

The Dayton site was chosen because of its close proximity to the Elizabeth container port, Maersk said. It’s also about a one-hour drive from the Port of Philadelphia and two and a half hours from Baltimore and Delaware. 

Maersk said the facility will encompass 167,812 square feet, with 13,000 rack positions, 30 dock doors, a dry sprinkler system, refrigerated dock, trailer plug-ins, in-house clearance, refrigerated and frozen storage, 24-hour monitoring, and a backup generator. U.S. Department of Agriculture import and export services, repacking, reboxing, labeling, and co-packing also will be available. 

Performance Team currently operates more than 60 distribution and fulfillment centers in North America. Maersk added to its North American first-, middle- and last-mile capabilities with its February acquisition of Pilot Freight Services for $1.8 billion. 

In March, Maersk announced Performance Team would build a 283,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Baytown, Texas, about 15 minutes from Port Houston. The facility, which will have access to both BNSF and Union Pacific rail lines, is expected to open in August. 

As part of its transformation from a pure ocean carrier to an end-to-end logistics company, Maersk also has looked to the sky. In November, it agreed to pay $644 million to acquire German freight forwarder Senator International, which primarily manages airfreight transportation for cargo owners. Maersk Air Cargo, which had operated 15 Boeing 767 medium widebody freighters, also ordered two large 777 freighters from Boeing and purchased long-term transport service with three 767 freighters from Air Transport Service Group in the U.S.

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Click here for more American Shipper/FreightWaves stories by Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills.

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Editor: Kim Link Wills