The Business Of Constantly Moving Food

Local Foods, LLC is a wholesale distributor & retail store in Chicago, Illinois. The company brings local products, farm-grown foods, and wholesale goods to restaurants, grocery stores, and their retail store in Bucktown. 

Local Foods has had the good fortune of steady, upward growth. Recently the company decided to consolidate its warehouse rental spaces throughout Chicago into a brand new, centrally located, 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility wholly owned by Local Foods. 

“Everything was new for Local Foods, we never owned a warehouse or any material handling equipment of our own before,” said Dave Rand, Co-Founder, and COO of the Company. The company rented space in various warehouses using their facility as well as their forklift equipment.
 

Warehouse Space Demands the Smallest Forklift 

Wolter evaluated the new warehouse space and recommended the Mariotti ME10C forklift.  Mariotti forklifts are extremely compact and designed specifically for maneuvering through small spaces. Local Foods understands the importance of maximizing the square footage of their warehouse and is utilizing the Mariotti throughout 12-hour workdays, quickly moving in and out of coolers, as perishable foods have a very short shelf life. 

The new warehouse was certainly more efficient, however, one problem remained. Not all large delivery trucks could make their way to the dock doors. Delivery had to be completed along the street. The curbside deliveries represented approximately 20% of their strategic business.
 

Indoor Demands Reaches the Outdoors

Local Foods decided to purchase an additional forklift, but this one was dedicated to the outdoors. Wolter recommended the Doosan GX truck, a rugged and durable forklift for all seasons. They quickly found that the Doosan was a financially sound investment, going from a rental to monthly financing, saving Local Foods 40% each month.
 

More than just Forklifts

Not only do the correct forklifts for the job save on costs, but it’s also important to keep warehouse employees safe by avoiding slips, trips, and falls. Using industrial floor cleaning equipment drastically minimizes the risk of these accidents. Local Foods understands the importance of clean and clear warehouse floors and purchased a Powerboss Phoenix 20 sweeper/scrubber combination unit to keep concrete floors clean and safe as well as increase productivity. 

Seeing that Wolter’s previous recommendations had proved to save costs and improve safety, Local Foods knew additional recommendations would be a safe bet. Next, a solution was found to seal and protect each dock door. Dock seals keep the outside elements such as heat, rain, and cold where they belong…outside. 
Now Local Food’s 5 dock doors will be sealed and protected for better energy efficiencies throughout the warehouse, in turn reducing their monthly energy bill. 

Another example of how Wolter is more than forklifts and how we “accelerate your productivity” for all your material handling needs.


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