Leonard’s Express celebrated the construction of its temperature-controlled warehouse in Shortsville on Thursday.
Construction workers, Leonard’s employees and local community members gathered to sign the warehouse beam at the topping-out ceremony on Thursday, June 9.
Leonard’s customers like Andy Wells, the Logistics Manager of food and beverage manufacturer O-AT-KA, said the new warehouse will help his company meet their manufacturing and customer needs.
Watch Megan Hatch’s coverage for FingerLakes1.com (video)
Ontario County: Leonard’s Express celebrates construction of new warehouse with ceremony this Thursday
Versatility in the warehouse industry
“We are interested because it’s a large facility that would be able to meet all the high-paced manufacturing environment that we are living in today and to have a facility like this that can not only flex from frozen storage to dry storage it definitely adds that level of versatility,” said Wells.
Leonards’s said its new warehouse is a necessity in the upstate community because most of the infrastructure for warehousing in the U.S. has become outdated.
“The average age is about 42 years old, so a lot of that is older infrastructure, so to see new investments like this for Leonard’s is a great thing,” said Wells.
Mackenzie-Childs Warehouse Sale returns after two-year COVID-19 hiatus
New technology
Ken Johnson, the CEO of Leonard’s Express, explained why he thinks this new refrigerated warehouse is important to the community.
“On doing our market research we saw a lot of immediate demand for refrigerated space… there are refrigerated warehouses in the area but most of them are full, ours will be state of the art where some of the others are a little bit older, you know different technology.”
The new warehouse will not only help co-ops and farmers but also people who are looking for work in the Finger Lakes area.
“It’s a growing industry. you could go from one area like warehousing and logistics, you could go into R and D, you could go into sales, so there’s plenty of growth opportunities for a real career, and it’s going to stick around,” said Wells. “It gives us a chance to…promote the project overall and in my opinion the community and the area.”
The anticipated opening for the warehouse is January 1, 2023, and Johnson said Leonard’s topping-out ceremony is a chance to celebrate with the community.
Popeyes planned for Auburn redevelopment, site plan still in works
