Distribution center ready

Cooper Farms has completed a new cold storage distribution center at its processing plant in St. Henry, Ohio. 

The 90,000-square-foot facility will provide 15 new jobs.

“We previously outsourced our cold storage, but the time was now right for us to do this ourselves, on-site,” said chief operating officer Gary Cooper in a prepared statement.

The new facility has refrigerator and freezer space, 14 truck docks and a new food safety and quality lab.

The company said the distribution portion of the facility is split into two rooms. 

A cooler room with space for about 2,800 pallets will hold ready-to-eat products from Coopers cooked meat plant in Van Wert, Ohio. The freezer side will hold about 4,500 pallets for frozen products such as burgers, roasts and other commodities produced at the St. Henry plant.

The distribution center was constructed by the Tippman Group, Fort Wayne. 

Work began in June of last year.