Compass Cold Looks to the Future After Celebrating Grand Opening of New Cold Storage Facility

MULBERRY, ARKANSAS (June 27, 2023) — The Arkansas River Valley got a lot cooler at the beginning of June as hundreds of people turned out for the grand opening of Compass Cold Storage’s highly anticipated complex. Compass Cold held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new cold storage facility located near Fort Smith in Mulberry, Arkansas. Featuring cutting-edge refrigeration and freezing technology, the new complex offers cold storage opportunities for food wholesalers, retailers, and food manufacturing customers in central and northwest Arkansas.

State and local leaders, including Mayor Gary Baxter attended and toured the facility that will feature 142,160 square feet and 18,500 pallet positions within the cold storage environment equipped with QFM In-Rack Freezing System™. The facility can maintain temperatures ranging from 40°F to -20°F. QFM In-Rack Freezing System™ combines blast freezing technology and pallet racking. QFM freezes pallets up to four times faster than traditional blast freezers with the ability to reduce energy consumption by as much as 50%.

Doug Bowen and Darren Winstead, owners of Compass Cold, said the event was to mark the company’s completion of the first phase of a three-phase project to build a cold storage facility in Mulberry. “Working with the Ti Cold team has been a gratifying and smooth process,” said Bowen. “It has only been around a year from groundbreaking to grand opening which is good for almost any type of new build project, but for a commercial project of this magnitude that turnaround timeframe is nothing short of exceptional. We are so pleased with how this has come together. We have already broken ground on phase two of the project with completion scheduled for early fall of this year. Completion of the second phase of the project is scheduled to be finished by late summer and will include additional freezer and dock space and will bring the project total to about $50 million. An additional third phase is in the planning stage.”

Mayor Baxter said the company will have a significant economic impact for the city. “This is what I call the cornerstone for our industrial park because it is the largest facility and it is very prominently visible from the highway and the access is so very, very good right off of Interstate 40 at Exit 20,” Baxter said.

Others who spoke during the grand opening included state Reps. Chad Puryear, R-Hindsville, and Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, and state Sen. Jim Petty, R-Van Buren.

“Any time we at Ti Cold can help fill critical food storage capacity demands within a region we feel great about the accomplishment,” said Sam Tippmann, President of Ti Cold.

This state-of-the-art complex was developed and built by Ti Cold headquartered in Melbourne, Florida. The professionals at Ti Cold possess decades of experience and have developed similar projects throughout North America.

Doug Bowen and Darren Winstead are the operators of Compass Cold and are well known in the Arkansas transportation sector, through their company, Doug’s Produce Trucking. They have deep relationships with food processors, manufacturers, and wholesalers across the country. Known throughout the Southeastern region of the United States, Doug’s Produce is a fast, friendly, and fully functional professional trucking company that is known for putting the happiness of their drivers first.

With this new facility, Compass Cold supports clients with third party logistics (3PL) services. As a 3PL provider the company will store inventory as well as pick, pack and ship the client’s products directly from the facility. By providing warehousing, order processing, and shipping and receiving, Compass Cold will give their clients a turnkey solution to fulfilling orders quickly and efficiently.