Agile Cold Storage picks Claymont as the location for a cold-storage facility.
The Georgia-based company is getting over 4 million dollars in state funding to build a Delaware facility it expects to help meet growing demand from North American food manufacturers, processors, and growers.
“We are excited that Agile Cold Storage is choosing Delaware for its next facility. This will create good jobs and economic investment in Claymont,” said Gov. John Carney. “Their operations will build on Delaware’s strong foundation in food manufacturing and transportation, helping our region’s supply chain.”
The new 275,000-square-foot facility will be the company’s first outside of Georgia. They operate two in the Atlanta area while they’re planning a third one in Macon.
"They are looking to build a new cold storage facility in Claymont. Ultimately the project will take about 4 to 5 years to build out. It'll total $170 million roughly in capital investment, and will bring at least 130 new jobs to Claymont which is very exciting," said Megan Kopistecki, Senior Business Development Manager for the Delaware Prosperity Partnership.
Some of the jobs include management and supervisors, general laborers, forklift operators, inventory control, customer service and maintenance.
And more jobs are expected to be added by partner service providers associated with the facility.
The jobs numbers don’t even include the construction jobs to build the facility.
Kopistecki says Delaware was selected over other areas in the region.
"So this was a competitive project meaning the company was looking at more than one location,” said Kopistecki. “They had been looking at the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast area for quite some time, well over a year, and we were competing against other sites in the region out outside of the state of Delaware. So this was a competitive project."
Agile Cold specializes in blast freezing, layer/case picking, cross docking, export services, tempering and e-commerce, and offers automation in warehouse receiving, storage, and shipping.
The project cost is $170 million, with the state giving Agile a jobs performance grant of up to $510,500, and a capital expenditures grant of up to $4.05 million.
