Kingsburg Orchards announced a 45,000 square foot expansion to Cornerstone, their roadside packing and shipping facility. There are now 11 new docks, an additional shipping office to accommodate check-ins, and more cold storage and staging areas for their fresh stone fruit.
In previous years, inventory had been managed in the facility by hand, using whiteboards to trace the product to its location in the warehouse. It is a cumbersome process that led to excessive wait times for drivers coming to pick up loads from the facility.
To prepare for the coming season and additional storage, Red Line inventory management systems will be installed throughout the building. This system uses a barcode scanning system that allows the forklift operators to track and stage the product faster and more efficiently, cutting down on drivers’ wait time.
Cornerstone has also added more members to their shipping crew to adequately staff the new docks. In addition to all of this, they are dedicating at least one dock as an Express Lane for one to two pallet orders, transfers, and airport loads to make wait times even shorter. As owner Mike Jackson says, “We are in a service based industry, so we need to focus on our customer service. We want our facility to be a pleasant place to stop, where drivers receive quality service and can get back on the road again with minimum wait times.”
The expansion was triggered as a response to customer feedback, as well as to meet the growing needs of their company. Kingsburg Orchards is a family owned and operated grower, packer, and shipper of stone fruit owned by George Jackson, his sons Mike and Brent, and son-in-law, John Diepersloot. Mike’s sons Ryan, Matt, and Greg, Brent’s sons-in-law Brody Wilgenburg and Cody Lehman, and John’s son Jake are all currently growers for the company as well. This coming summer, Jake will graduate from Cal Poly San Luis and intends to move back to Kingsburg and begin farming more land, and Kyle will be moving into farming this season as well. John’s youngest sons, Zack and Caleb, will graduate from Central Valley Christian in Visalia this spring and plan on studying agriculture in college and farming when they complete their studies. The need for additional facilities has grown as the next generation rises to take their place alongside their fathers, and the extra storage created by the new facility will be of great benefit to the company in the coming seasons.
Source: Kingsburg Orchards