Lineage Logistics marks grand opening of Savannah Fresh-Port Wentworth facility

Lineage Logistics recently marked the grand opening of its newest facility in Port Wentworth, Ga.

Savannah Fresh-Port Wentworth is strategically located near the Port of Savannah, the largest single-terminal container facility of its kind in North America and the third-busiest container gateway in the U.S., according to a news release. 

The 220,000-square-foot facility offers cross-docking services for products to enter and exit the facility on the same day if needed, reducing storage time, creating cost efficiencies and ensuring consumers receive fresh produce faster, the release said. It also has 23 inbound and outbound lanes that can process more than 40 trucks daily, moving up to 1.4 million pounds of produce per day.

“Today, the demand for port-centric temperature-controlled storage has never been greater and our Fresh solution offerings at Lineage have never been more robust,” Jim Henderson, vice president of global sales and business development at Lineage, said in the release. “Savannah Fresh-Port Wentworth will allow us to expand our Fresh offering to new and existing customers and also provides the needed capacity to improve market conditions. The opening of this new facility is a critical step for Lineage as we continuously work to reimagine the world’s food supply chain. We are honored to further our long-standing partnership with Georgia Ports Authority and look forward to building our presence in the state of Georgia, an essential hub for trade and innovation.”

For the past two years, Lineage has worked closely with the Savannah Economic Development Authority, Georgia Ports Authority and the city of Port Wentworth to construct the Savannah Fresh-Port Wentworth facility in addition to its port-adjacent facility on Tremont Road in Savannah, the release said. The Savannah Fresh-Port Wentworth project resulted in a $78 million investment alone that created 65 new jobs, bringing Lineage’s total economic investment in Chatham County to over $100 million. To date, Lineage’s footprint in Georgia spans over 3 million square feet.

Savannah Fresh-Port Wentworth was designed to address the overwhelming influx in imports of fresh produce to ports in the mid-Atlantic that lack the space to keep up with the demand, the release said. With proximity to the Port of Savannah, the new facility will enable Lineage to deliver larger quantities of fresh produce more efficiently to serve customers across the Southeast.

“With increasing demand for fresh produce capacity in Savannah, this new, state-of-the-art facility is a welcome addition,” Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, said in the release. “Lineage Logistics’ suite of services, such as cold-retreatment and onsite [Customers and Border Protection] inspections, will save time, help prevent loss and, ultimately, bring fresh food to market faster.”