Conestoga Cold Storage: All under remote control

There’s no mystery surrounding this cold case. By capitalizing on consumer trends, employing the latest in robotics and technology, and continuously improving its efficiency, Conestoga Cold Storage has set itself apart in the industry.

It is popular with Canada’s largest food manufacturers and can handle everything from purchasing to distribution and warehousing.

Conestoga is headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario and has a national presence with facilities in Mississauga, Ontario, Calgary, Alberta and Montreal, Quebec.

It enjoyed revenues of C$50 million last year and has experienced growth of about 20 percent annually for the last 10 years.

The family owned company was founded in 1974 by Larry Laurin and originally handled commodities. Over the last 20 years, it has adjusted as market demands have changed.

“We moved from commodities into more finished goods over the last 20 years,” says Greg Laurin, manager of Mississauga operations.

“We really tried to get into a more specialized service area that our competitors have shied away from. Increasingly our customers require a higher level of case picking, tight timelines and detailed recall reporting so we have developed more and more sophisticated tracking systems to meet these new demands.”

Consumers, it seems, have increasingly moved towards more convenient, ready-made meals and other prepared foods that they could serve up quickly to accommodate their busy lifestyles.


Raising the bar

The use of robotics has played a key role in Conestoga’s growth.

By investing in automation, the company has increased its flexibility, maximized its use of space and developed a more efficient operation.

Mississauga has six robots, each 100 feet tall, working 24/7 with a fully computerized system.

An additional four robots operate at the Kitchener head office.

This level of automation means the company doesn’t have to worry about shift changes and miscommunications in its shelving and picking operations.

The high rise warehouse technology also provides high-density storage with increased energy efficiency over conventional warehouse space. For example, the automated warehouses can operate in complete darkness as these specialized robots do not require light to be able to see what they’re doing.

Conestoga is also developing an automated system that will pick orders at the case level.

A full-scale system is currently being stress tested in a frozen environment to ensure all of the components are reliable at temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit.


Cutting energy costs

With energy prices going up, Conestoga has made full use of its computerized and automated operations to cut some key costs.

Although spikes in gas prices have claimed the limelight in the United States, fuel is not the biggest driver of Conestoga’s budget.

“We’ve been protected from rising gas prices a little,” Laurin says, “because of the rising Canadian dollar, currently on par with the American.”

Labor takes the biggest bite out of the company’s revenues. Electricity is the second largest cost. As a result, Conestoga has implemented an aggressive energy-use reduction plan.

“Our electricity price is based on the actual cost of producing the energy at a certain time,” Laurin says.

Because the price of electricity fluctuates constantly, with rates tending to rise during the day and fall at night, Conestoga programmed its systems to run at full capacity at night and intermittently during the day. “Our freezing rooms are kept at below zero degrees Fahrenheit so there is no chance of spoilage,” he adds.

Using these systems the company has been able to reduce the bite that higher energy prices are taking.

In addition, Conestoga replaced its metal halide lighting, which produces significant heat, with fluorescent lighting, which produces far less heat and burns brighter.

However, the need for light at Conestoga is minimal.

“Half of our capacity is automated,” Laurin says, “and robots can run in complete darkness.”


The future is bright

Conestoga has benefited from a relatively stable labor force.

“The only place labor has been a bit of a challenge has been in Calgary,” Laurin says. “It’s a hot market with a lot of oil and gas expansion and building going on.”

The expansion in the oil and gas industry, he says, has siphoned some of the labor away.

Still, the cold storage business will grow with the popularity of ready-made foods and the company will grow along with it.

While he expects Conestoga’s expansion to taper off a little from its aggressive 20 percent annual growth, Laurin still sees the company’s numbers steadily rising.

“Our industry is a strong industry,” he says. “We see a bright future and an expanded market for us.”

The company is in the process of an expansion in Mississauga and increased the automated pallet capacity in Kitchener last year by 10,000 pallets. The Mississauga facility is now over 13 million cubic feet on 18 acres of land and Kitchener has nearly six million cubic feet of temperature controlled space.

In addition, Conestoga is expanding into the United States as the exclusive US distributor for a new chain of stores called MyMenu.

This chain is based on the successful M&M Meat Shops concept that operates nearly 500 locations across Canada.

These stores have hundreds of easy to prepare meals in one convenient aisle and are a perfect solution for preparing meals in today’s quick paced world.

There’s plenty of work to go around in Canada for this family owned business. Its four facilities have a shared volume of over 22 million cubic feet, and with consumers showing no signs of reverting to a slower-paced lifestyle, it’s unlikely Conestoga will get left out in the cold.