Mid Valley Foods, Inc.

MOVING THE BUSINESS FORWARD

Founded in 1979, Mid Valley Foods is a family-owned wholesale meat and food distributor located in California’s Central Valley. Customers from large-scale supermarkets to small restaurants rely on Mid Valley Foods to deliver their orders on time, and Mid Valley expects its lift trucks to perform.

Over the years, the business grew from a small-sized meat distributor to a powerhouse in the wholesale food distribution industry. To keep pace with its rapid growth, Mid Valley soon moved its operation to a newly constructed, state-of-the-art facility with over 25,000 sq. ft. of space, including a large refrigerated and freezer area. Tripling Mid Valley’s operational capacity, management turned their attention to finding the right walkies to move the business forward.

Owner Cheri Casey states, “Obviously, we experienced equipment that was not cost-effective, because of repairs, time down, that type of thing.” She continues, “We find that this piece of equipment has been the workhorse we needed it to be.”

INCREASED EFFICIENCY / LESS COST

Mid Valley converted its mixed fleet of aging forklifts to the Jungheinrich® pallet trucks and saw a huge increase in efficiency. “The pickers are more efficient now. We’ve seen a 20 percent increase in their cases per man-hour. Obviously, from an efficiency standpoint – that’s huge. We can pick more with less people,” says Casey.

Chief Operating Officer Chris Reed explains why the Jungheinrich EJEs were a win from an operation’s standpoint. “I see all the bills come across my desk, and other than preventative maintenance, I haven’t spent much money on these units at all.” He continues, “If we have a (forklift) go down, it really impacts our business, especially out in the field where I’ve seen zero downtime. It’s all been 100% uptime, which is great.”