Berry marketer Sun Belle has agreed to acquire the business and property of CoolHouse Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas.
The acquisition adds a fifth Sun Belle distribution center to company-operated facilities in Jessup, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Schiller Park, Illinois; and Oxnard, California.
CoolHouse’s three-year old facility has 35,000 square feet of refrigerated and freezer space on 11.4 acres. The building was designed to be doubled in size and is located between Laredo’s two international bridges across the Rio Grande River.
The Port of Laredo is the largest inland port of entry in the U.S. and is currently the nation’s top U.S. gateway for international trade.
CoolHouse Distribution Center was established in 2017 by Lucy Montemayor and her father, Rodolfo Delgado, principals of customs broker Rodel International. It provides services such as quality inspections, sorting, repacking, labeling and building orders.
CoolHouse currently transloads and handles an average of 50 to 60 trucks per day. The facility is certified to handle organics, is Kosher certified and approved by U.S. Customs to transload In-Bond shipments with Canadian and European destinations.
Janice Honigberg, president of Sun Belle, announced that Sun Belle has purchased 100 percent of CoolHouse and will maintain its existing third-party business under the CoolHouse banner. Montemayor will join Sun Belle as general manager of the Laredo distribution center.
“I have known and worked with Lucy for more than 20 years and have always been impressed by her expertise and integrity,” Honigberg said.
“I am delighted that she will be an integral part of our Sun Belle team, and look forward to her leadership as we grow CoolHouse, establish Sun Belle Laredo and install new blueberry-packing and heat-seal lines.”
In a statement, Montemayor recalled how Honigberg and others had urged her to start Coolhouse. “We built [our facility] with expansion in mind,” she said. “I’m confident that Sun Belle will benefit greatly from this foresight as its business continues to grow.”
Honigberg added that a catalyst for the deal was Sun Belle’s “recently announced long-term exclusive marketing and distribution agreement with Giddings Mexico.” Under that arrangement, Sun Belle markets all of Giddings’ conventional and organic blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries.
In addition to CoolHouse, Honigberg noted that a sales and distribution company named Sun Belle Laredo will also be established to deliver berries to customers in the South and Southwest and for customer pick-ups.
Established in 1986 in Washington, D.C., Sun Belle is the exclusive marketer of the Sun Belle and Green Belle brands. The company distributes: conventional and organic blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries; certified biodynamic organic cranberries and blueberries; golden berries and red currants; and green house and specialty produce.
