Widening the produce pathway: Facility broadens food service distributor’s reach

The produce distribution game in the Carolinas welcomed a big-time new player with the recent completion of a distribution center in Florence, South Carolina, for Florida-based Cheney Brothers, a major food service distributor with a large presence across the Southeast.

Headquartered in Riviera Beach, Florida, Cheney Brothers has been in food distribution for 101 years. The company was acquired by Richmond, Virginia-based Performance Food Group (PFG) in October 2024.

The $108.5 million facility, completed in March, marks Cheney Brothers’ first venture into South Carolina, a move the company said will help the broadline distributor expand its reach in the region — serving everything from restaurants and catering companies to country clubs, schools, hospitals and other food-service enterprises.

‘Purpose-built for produce’

The Florence facility is located on nearly 50 acres in the Pee Dee Commerce City East Industrial Park across I-95 from a Buc-ee’s travel center, a bustling location with high visibility and close proximity to rapidly growing areas around the region, especially along the S.C. coast.

Two of the state’s coastal counties — Horry and Jasper — are among the fastest-growing in the Southeast, with Jasper in the top five for growth nationwide in 2024. Horry, home to tourism capital Myrtle Beach, is also in the top 50 of rapid-growth regions in the U.S.

“Opening our first facility in South Carolina is a really exciting milestone both for Cheney Brothers and PFG,” said Mike Turner, president of the Florence facility. “The Florence operation expands our footprint in the Southeast and puts us even closer to our customers across the Carolinas and neighboring markets. By being geographically closer, we can shorten delivery times, improve service reliability and better support our customers as they grow.”

The 386,047-square-foot refrigerated/freezer distribution center, which opened in March, features 45 loading docks, the largest culinary kitchen Cheney Brothers has developed to date. There’s also a Cheney Express, a retail outlet offering wholesale restaurant-quality food, produce, bulk items and cleaning supplies to members of the public at discounted prices. The Cheney Express locations, popular in Florida, add new food-purchasing options in the Florence region.

More than 16,000 products will be distributed through the new center, but produce will be one of the biggest elements at the facility, which Turner calls “purpose-built for produce.”

“Produce will see the biggest lift,” he said. “Our produce program focuses on direct-from-source offerings, and we’re working closely with local farmers to continue expanding options across the Carolinas. The Florence facility is designed to handle a broad range of fresh and value-added produce. Its layout and systems allow us to manage multiple product types with greater consistency, quality and freshness, so the benefit really extends across our entire produce portfolio.”

By the numbers

This isn’t Cheney’s first venture in the Carolinas. In 2016, the company acquired Pate Dawson Co., expanding its distribution and processing footprints with facilities in Statesville and Greensboro, North Carolina.

A M King, a design-build firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, worked with Cheney Brothers on design and construction in Florence, its fourth major project collaboration with the company. The firm also worked with Cheney on two major expansions at the Statesville facility and transformation of a vacant shell building in Greensboro into a food-processing facility and is currently working on a new facility for Cheney in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Partnering with Cheney again for its expansion into South Carolina “to develop a facility of this magnitude and complexity” was a great experience, according to A M King vice president David Sawicki.

A M King has a long background in working with food-service companies, so the company knew what questions to ask from the project’s beginning.

“We’re a design-build firm, so we absolutely sit down with Cheney’s leadership to determine what their specific needs are going to be for any market that they’re going to be in,” Sawicki said. “We ask about the cooking oils they’re storing, aerosols, flour, the nature of the produce and frozen goods they’re distributing, and we take all of that into consideration.”

Cheney’s Florence operation includes some impressive numbers — 100,963 square feet of dry storage and a 36,098-square-foot dry dock; more than 90,000 square feet of freezer space; 60,683 square feet of cooler space with separate rooms and temperatures for dairy and meat products, flour and produce; a 31,533-square-foot cooler dock and more than 30,000 square feet of office space.

The Cheney Express encompasses 7,142 square feet with a walk-in cooler, and a test kitchen offers more than 3,300 square feet. Space was also designed for future expansion within the facility, including room for a 75,305-square-foot cooler-freezer, 47,856-square-foot dry warehouse and more than 6,600 square feet of unfinished mezzanine.

Pushing the produce envelope

The facility includes a first at a Cheney Brothers facility: a robotic forklift battery exchanger carousel which company officials say will improve productivity and safety. The technology supports continuous operations by efficiently managing battery swaps in the refrigerated and frozen foods areas.

The refrigeration system at the site is also different from some others in use at many produce distribution facilities, Sawicki said. The Florence facility uses packaged ammonia refrigeration, which moves all of the refrigeration work to self-contained modules on the facility’s roof, Sawicki said, eliminating the need for a self-contained machine room within the facility itself.

Sawicki also noted that the large freezers in the facility will enable Cheney to meet the increasing demand for produce and other products from restaurants and other customers along the coast.

“Previously Cheney Brothers was servicing the markets of Myrtle Beach and Charleston from Statesville, and that’s a pretty long haul,” he said. “This location allows them to have more products more readily available for customers along the coast.”

The facility also includes two different types of produce storage — one kept at 35° F and another at 45° F — to cater to the many different types of products being stored.

The test kitchen serves many purposes, including playing host to representatives from area restaurants for menu-building sessions featuring Cheney Brothers offerings.

The facility is also built to withstand the severe weather events that frequently impact the Pee Dee region where Florence is located – a little over 67 miles from the S.C. coast.

“This building is built to withstand hurricane-force winds so Cheney Brothers is not going to lose products if a storm hits,” Sawicki said. “As soon as they’re able, they’ll be the first to be back on the road.”