FlexCold to build new $50 million facility in Charleston
Cold storage warehousing and logistics company FlexCold is opening its second facility in the U.S. in Charleston, South Carolina.
The facility, expected to be operational by late summer 2024, represents a total investment of $50 million and will create 59 jobs, according to a news release from the S.C. Department of Commerce. Headquartered in Charleston, FlexCold also has a facility in Jacksonville, Florida, which opened near the Jacksonville Port Authority in the fall of 2022.
The facility will be located in Dorchester County, within 20 minutes of the Port of Charleston. It will support the company’s import and export business, specifically seafood, with more than 30,000 pallet positions of cold-storage space, as well as provide U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration inspections, labeling and repacking, and cross-docking services.
“We are excited to keep growing the FlexCold business by establishing operations in strategic locations that are advantageous to today’s evolving food-supply chain, such as this new planned facility for Charleston, which will support critical import and export business,” Jeff Manno, FlexCold co-founder, said in a company news release.
FlexCold, which serves the meat, packaged goods, poultry, frozen produce and seafood industries, plans to announce additional new facilities later this year.
A $580 million dredging project making Charleston Harbor the deepest on the East Coast at 52 feet was completed in December 2022.
“SC Ports has significantly upgraded its refrigerated capabilities to efficiently handle more frozen and fresh products for the growing Southeast consumer base,” S.C. Ports President and CEO Barbara Melvin said in a release from S.C. Commerce. “FlexCold’s investment will complement these efforts and further enhance the cold chain in South Carolina. This innovative facility will expand the ability to move more frozen products, such as seafood, through the Port of Charleston.”
