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Distribution Center Makes a Successful Move with the Help of
WarehouseRack.com
Founded in 1970 in St. Augustine Florida, Tree of Life (http://www.treeoflife.com)
quickly become the premier wholesale distributor and marketer of natural and
organic foods in the southeastern US in the 1970’s. Through the 80’s with the
ever expanding natural and organic food market, Tree of Life continued to grow
its operations and establish distribution facilities in key markets across the
country. In 1988, Tree of Life entered the specialty food distribution and since
then has developed a nationwide distribution network with 10 centers and 3,200
employees and most recently has expanded into Canada.
Because of the continued growth of consumer demand of natural and specialty
foods, in 2007, Tree of Life found they needed to relocate their Dallas
distribution center into a much larger space. The biggest challenge they faced
was time in moving their existing warehouse storage system and expanding into
the new building. In order to stay operational during the entire move, they had
approximately four weeks to move out of their 140,000 square feet building into
their new 324,000 square feet location including tear down, moving,
re-installing, not to mention purchasing 140,000 square feet of new pallet rack
systems.
After putting out a request for proposal, Tree of Life selected
WarehouseRack.com to assist them with the move. WarehouseRack.com was chosen as
they were a local vendor, had extensive industry knowledge and expertise and
offered a valuable cost savings compared to other bidders. According to Clint
Wheeler, Director of Operations of Tree of Life, “We felt like they knew what
they were doing and could provide us the level of service we needed to get the
job done quickly.”
In just a few short weeks, 140,000 square feet of pallet rack was purchased and
brought in from Fort Worth, unloaded and installed. The existing warehouse rack
was then torn down and moved to reinstall at the new location. Wheeler stated,
“Our team was pushing in products on pallets right behind the installers. We
worked hand-in-hand getting our new warehouse operational in record time. We
couldn’t have done it without their help.”
Due to the extreme deadline of this project and the difficulty factor of the
job, including accurate dimensions to the pallet rack and installing according
to OSHA guidelines, this was considered a hard install. “WarehouseRack.com
provided a knowledgeable crew that worked with extreme speed, care and
accuracy,” stated Wheeler.
Wheeler and Tree of Life have since recommended WarehouseRack.com to their other
10 distribution centers nationwide because they were so impressed. “We will most
certainly use WarehouseRack.com in the future,” Wheeler declares. “They go above
and beyond what is asked of them.”
About Tree of Life
Tree of Life is a leading marketer and distributor of natural, organic, gourmet,
specialty, and multicultural food products to supermarket chains, independent
grocers, natural/health food stores, and specialty/ethnic stores throughout the
U.S. and Canada.
Tree of Life’s network of sales associates, vendors and retailers is supplied
through distribution centers across the U.S. and Canada. Their goal is to meet
the needs of retailers and suppliers through excellence in distribution,
marketing and merchandising, and continuous improvement of their
environmentally-friendly business practices. Tree of Life is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Royal Wessanen in The Netherlands. For more information about Tree
of Life, visit their web site at www.treeoflife.com.
About WarehouseRack.com
Since 1992, Warehouse Rack Company LP offers complete storage systems such as
industrial pallet rack systems, mezzanines, cantilever racks, industrial
shelving, forklifts and much more. Warehouse Rack buys, sells, reconditions,
ships and installs for a number of manufacturing, storage and fulfillment
facilities. Serving businesses worldwide via various distribution centers in
Houston, San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth and El Salvador, WarehouseRack.com is
growing and expanding into more areas. For more information on WarehouseRack.com,
visit their website at www.warehouserack.com or for reconditioned forklifts,
visit their sister website, www.warehouselift.com.
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