Sid Wainer & Son, New Bedford, Mass., opened its new state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar warehousing and distribution facility in New Bedford, bringing the total cooler space to over 100,000 square feet.

The new 56,000-square-foot cooler space holds three separate temperature zones and a 200-foot shipping and receiving dock that was engineered around advanced safety systems and processes. The New Bedford plant produces over 2 million pounds of specialty foods for chefs and restaurants across New England and worldwide.

Some of the new technological additions to the facility include voice recognition order processing, access point defense, self-navigating forklifts, a fully integrated "smart" loading dock and 50,000 square feet of solar panels.

"Our customers are more than customers; they are our business partners. We do everything we can to provide them the best and most innovative products and services,” says Allie Wainer, executive vice president. “The new operational enhancements in our facility allow us to better serve our partners through increased food safety and quality measures, larger volume hold and better streamlined logistics."