Food Services of America Opens Doors In Everett to Customers, Jobs; Modern Distribution Center Is The First To Open On The CSR Site

Business Wire, July 19, 2000

Business Editors, Food Writers

EVERETT, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 2000

In less than 10 months from announcing that Food Services of America would be the first to construct on the newly redeveloped CSR Associated sand and gravel site in Everett, company chairman, Thomas J. Stewart, welcomed northwestern Washington foodservices operators inside the modern 196,000 square foot facility.

An extension of the company's Kent, Washington, distribution facility, the new Food Services of America Everett plant is the first of a three phase build-out plan on the 33-acre site that has already created more than 120 new jobs.

"As we considered how to add much needed warehouse space to our Kent distribution operation, it became apparent that building a second warehouse north of Seattle could address many traffic congestion and logistic issues that currently impact the Puget Sound area," said Stewart at the opening event that featured presentations by food product manufacturers. "By splitting our western Washington operations, we would greatly reduce the number of our trucks that travel daily through the congested Seattle corridor while creating greater efficiencies in our customer delivery schedules and taking advantage of the strong skilled employment pool that is present in Snohomish County."

According to Stewart, locating in Everett provides many additional benefits to the company and community. These include providing new jobs in a community hit hard by layoffs; shortening delivery times to customers while extending delivery periods where those hours were used driving back to Kent during peak traffic hours; reducing fuel consumption and injecting new income to the growing Snohomish county economy.

Located off Hardeson Road east of Paine Field, the Food Services of America Everett distribution center provides more than 9,000 products and equipment and specialized operations consulting services to foodservice operators in restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals and military installations located throughout northwestern Washington counties. At full build-out, planned at nearly three times its current size, the Food Services of America distribution center is expected to employ as many as 800 workers and will serve more than 4,000 customers bringing the combined Everett/Kent customer total to more than 12,000.

Conforming with City of Everett zoning regulations and the CSR Associated overall design scheme, the Food Services of America warehouse was styled to compliment the greenbelt environment that is planned for when the site redevelopment is completed. Although the warehouse interior reaches 40 feet in height, the building was designed with exterior architectural elements to break up its massive appearance and to blend with its surroundings. According to Stewart, nearly 300,000 square feet of landscaping is scheduled before fall to include paving, pedestrian walkways, lawn, flowers and the planting of approximately three trees per 1,000 square feet. With environmental compliance built into the facility design, even the 76,000 square feet of cold storage is refrigerated in compliance with the strictest EPA standards.

Stewart and Food Services of America president and CEO, Tom Staley, toured guests as they visited the new facility and took advantage of special values.

Food Services of America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Services Group of America, the largest privately-held corporation in Washington state. Food Services of America operates 11 distribution facilities serving 15 western and mid-western states.