Company starts moving pickles to new warehouse
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 28, 2011 12:01 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- The Mt. Olive Pickle Co. has begun moving inventory into its new 138,000-square-foot addition at its distribution center on the corner of Old Mount Olive Highway and Northeast Church Road just north of the company's plant.
When the move is completed, the 308,000-square-foot facility will hold 3.6 million cases of pickles. Another 2.2 million cases will be spread over the company's three other warehouses.
Contractor R.N. Rouse Construction began work on the $5.3 million project last November. Work was completed in June and the company began moving pickles in about two weeks ago, company spokesperson Lynn Williams said.
The expansion was added to the north end of the distribution center, which was constructed in 1997. The addition was designed to increase the efficiency of the company's shipping and receiving process, Mrs. Williams said.
The addition has four new bay doors that will serve as a receiving center only, leaving the original 10 bay doors on the east side of the building for shipping.
"Since we are able to store more products, we have to spend less time shifting the products around," Mrs. Williams said. "The whole purpose is that we have seen a nice sales growth in recent years, and we needed to store more inventory. It improves efficiency."
The company has experienced a 36 percent growth in cases sold over the past four years, she said.
"In addition, it certainly enables us to position ourselves for additional sales growth in the future, and we should be set for a while," Mrs. Williams said.
The Mt. Olive Pickle Co. has operated at its Mount Olive facility at the corner of Cucumber and Vine Street since it was founded in 1926.