Earlier this week, we announced that Lineage has completed twelve transactions across five countries, including The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, and Norway.
In total, these deals add 2.5 million square feet and 90 million cubic feet of capacity to our global footprint – the equivalent to approximately 1,022 Olympic-size swimming pools, and 15% larger than the volume of London’s O2 Arena! It’s absolutely amazing.
While the Lineage team worked tirelessly to keep the world fed during the pandemic, in the background, we were hard at work searching for, and integrating, temperature-controlled facilities in core population and food production markets to continue extending our leading global network.
These transactions address increasing demand from customers who are responding to shifting market dynamics and are looking for innovative global supply chain solutions to solve their challenges. The strategic locations of these facilities near where food is grown, consumed, and shipped from ports allows us to offer supply chain solutions that extend throughout the entire value chain. Additionally, the acquisitions bring more highly-automated capabilities into our network and provide expansion opportunities as we – and our customers – grow.
Truth be told, our relentless focus on our customers (and our growth to support them) wouldn’t be possible without our “One Lineage” team. Looking back on our company’s history, it’s clear that bringing strong teams together under one banner has been at the core of our domestic and international growth. Our M&A vision has always been to find smart, innovative companies with values-based cultures that help us to build a whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts. In other words, in one way or another, we have always – and will continue to – work in pursuit of that One Lineage framework.
To be sure, the One Lineage story is an exciting one to be a part of. We all have a hand in building a global powerhouse in an industry that plays a vital role in connecting people all over the world to the food they eat every day.
2020 was full of challenges, but it was also a year of momentous growth for our company. I am proud to be a part of the Lineage family and I am excited for what’s to come in 2021.
Please join me in welcoming the newest members of the Lineage family – and there certainly are a lot of them – and in congratulating the team for an incredible year of growth.