How Four Seasons expansion relates to higher wages for employees

The Four Seasons Family of Cos., Ephrata, Pa., has experienced consistent double-digit growth the past several years, and many of those customer partnerships are broadening.  

A major distribution center expansion project began earlier in May in Ephrata, including a 131,000-square-foot addition to the warehouse, according to a news release. There will be a second dock, more multi-temperature cold storage rooms and more ripening rooms for bananas and avocados. Completion is set for spring 2022.

The Four Seasons group includes four units: wholesaler Four Seasons Produce, third-party logistics and freight provider Sunrise Logistics, importer Earth Source, and the Sunrise Transport truck fleet. 

This warehouse addition will enable Four Seasons Produce, the wholesale distribution business, to meet the future needs of independent retailers, natural food stores, food cooperatives, e-commerce and other professional buyers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Also, Sunrise Logistics, the logistics and freight business, and Earth Source, the importer, will gain more cold storage space including 10 temperature zones. Sunrise Logistics will be able to offer cross-dock and storage customers a better inbound and outbound delivery network with full-load and less-than-load capabilities throughout the East.

“Food distribution is a tight timeline, 24-hour business,” CEO Jason Hollinger said in the release. “One of the goals of this expansion project is to be able to ship and receive simultaneously using a second dock. This will allow us to bring a higher portion of work to daytime hours for our associates.”

Four Seasons is investing more than $3 million into higher wages for its operations associates and professional drivers in 2021 and is actively hiring to meet the increased demand from customers and prepare for the expansion. 

“We are so grateful for our front-line associates who put forth so much effort all through 2020’s pandemic challenges and now through 2021’s labor crunch,” Hollinger said in the release.

In 2020, the family of companies invested more than $1 million in “on-site-required appreciation pay” and other benefits to employees, he said. Leadership distributed profit-sharing to all associates in every area of the company.

“It is our associates’ commitment to excellent service and innovation that drives our business success and growth, which then enables us to reinvest in our people,” he said.

The expansion will include:

• 48,000-square-foot multi-temperature receiving dock with 39 added doors;
• 72,000-square-feet of cold storage with four-high racking with more than 6,000 more pallet spaces;
• 10 unique temperature zones, plus flex-temperature rooms for seasonal peaks; and
• 28-degree Fahrenheit chill zone for the growing organic and natural meat and poultry category.

The structure is designed with sustainability in mind, such as:

• 3,900-panel solar array on its current building, and the roof on the expansion is being prepped for future solar panels;
• Updated to energy-efficient lithium-ion electric material handling equipment;
• Environmental Protection Agency-certified electric generator for demand-response and total power backup;
• Energy-efficient refrigeration system will cool the expansion space; and
• Full LED lighting with motion sensors will be installed, with a total facility energy-monitoring system.