2023 Lehmkuhl Top 10: Built for the Future

At a company like Lineage, where grit and enthusiasm are at the core of who we are, no year is an uneventful year – and 2023 was no exception. I continue to be astounded by our more than 25,000 team members who are never deterred, are resolutely focused and always rise to meet the moment. Every day, they create solutions for our customers, show resilience in the face of new challenges, and play a critical role in helping to feed the world.

Simply put, that’s what this company – and this team – is built for.

?

Lineage is built to take on some of the cold chain’s biggest problems because our team members are fueled by the idea that nothing is impossible. Lineage is built to meet our customers’ needs in nearly every corner of the globe because our team members continuously work to maintain their trust. And Lineage is built to make a difference where we live and work because our team members are driven to leave the world better than we found it.

?

I couldn’t be prouder to serve this remarkable team and lead this extraordinary company.

?

In that spirit, I’m pleased to share my annual Top 10 (though there are countless more!) of Team Lineage’s achievements in 2023.

?

1. Introducing our Inaugural Sustainability Report: With the release of our inaugural Sustainability Report , we invited our partners and the public to learn more about how we’re investing in a sustainable future for our communities and our company. The work on our path to net-zero continues, but it is amazing to see the progress we’ve made.
2. Joining the Move to -15C Initiative: Lineage recently joined the “Move to -15 C” initiative to explore the potential transition to new, more sustainable temperature standards that could reduce carbon emissions in the cold chain on a global scale, underscoring the value of having a continuous improvement and innovation-forward mindset.
3. Strengthening our Executive Leadership Team: In April, we welcomed Rob Crisci as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who has become an essential thought partner to me as well as an outstanding leader to our finance organization. Our Asia Pacific team also gained an extraordinary leader in July with the addition of Brooke Miller as President of Asia Pacific (APAC), who has been an absolute dynamo and an impact-driven leader who is setting up her region for long-term success.
4. Investing in New Facilities Around the Globe: We’ve been busy this year building the future of the cold chain—quite literally—from a fresh produce hub in Savannah, GA , to a fully automated site in Colorado dedicated to one of our long-time customers to a new site at the Port of Tauranga in New Zealand to exciting new capacity in the high-demand Dallas and Houston markets!?We’re also continuing to grow our network through strategic acquisitions. We partnered with Hanoi-based SK Logistics to expand our network in Vietnam and recently completed the acquisitions of Nossack Transport, NOVA Coldstore, Kennedy Transportation & Logistics and the warehousing and e-commerce operations of Burris Logistics , welcoming those teams into the One Lineage family.
5. Enhancing our European Network, Specifically: We celebrated the grand openings of our Southern European headquarters in Madrid and our Central/Eastern European headquarters in Warsaw to create a stronger connection to our global network in those regions and expanded existing facilities to better serve customers—including new, highly-automated operations like Harnes, France and facility expansions such as Aarhus, Denmark . Congratulations to the entire European team on a year of amazing progress!
6. Making Forward Progress on our Lean Journey: It was awesome to congratulate our Gold Spike facility in Fort Worth, Texas on the network’s first-ever LEAN platinum certification —a testament to their dedication to continuous improvement and countless hours of hard work. While Gold Spike is the first to achieve platinum certification, we do not expect it to be the last – multiple Lineage facilities are making excellent progress on their LEAN journeys.
7. Focusing on Our #1 Value of Safe: I’m proud to report that we continue to consistently beat industry averages when it comes to total recordable incident (TIR) rates as a company – and 2023 was no exception. This year, we also expanded use of StrongArm Technologies , cutting-edge safety wearables that track repetitive motion activities and identify opportunities to improve the physical performance of our team members. Sites using this technology have seen as great as a one-third reduction in OSHA recordable incidents over time.
8. Continuing our DE&I Journey: Like anything else, on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, you need to lead from the top. Accordingly, I can safely say to leaders around the world that if you do not have a diverse team under you, you’re missing out – because you’re flat out more innovative, more informed and better-rounded when you have different perspectives around the table. In that spirit, it has been great to see our Employee Resource Groups really take off this year—connecting global team members with shared backgrounds and experiences to build relationships and help the company move the needle on our DE&I journey. Building an inclusive workplace is an imperative for Lineage if we intend to remain a leader in innovation and an awesome place to work.
9. Leading with Proprietary Innovation: The brilliant minds on our data science, product management and engineering teams continue to develop solutions to address challenges and received numerous patents in the process. We have 75 patents and counting—encompassing various aspects of our business from optimizing refrigeration power usage to leveraging autonomous mobile robots for more efficient layer picking.We also launched the “Tackling Food Waste for a Sustainable Future ” hackathon in Amsterdam, where a diverse group of innovators, problem solvers and startups convened to brainstorm ideas to address food waste. The winning team impressed the judges with their exceptional creativity, technical expertise and an innovative and scalable project that focuses on the production of alternatives for packaging materials. We’re excited to expand this successful concept in 2024 to hopefully bring more bright, impact-focused minds to bear on more challenges in our industry and beyond!
10. Being a Force for Good: Two years ago, we launched the Lineage Foundation for Good to help in the fight to address hunger, reduce food waste and give back to the communities the Lineage team lives and works. Since then, the Lineage Foundation for Good has donated the equivalent of over 100 million meals, while also facilitating the donation of over 2.7 million pounds of food products, as well as issuing more than $3 million in community-based grants.Across Lineage, we are all enormously proud of what the Foundation for Good stands for and what is achieving for the good of our team and the world. And I can’t mention the Foundation without thanking the countless Lineage team members who have volunteered, collected donations and rallied their teams to make our communities better.???

?

No doubt, our many accomplishments are a testament to the strength, creativity and compassion of this team and wouldn’t be possible without the steadfast faith put into this organization by our customers, investors and partners. Thank you for empowering this exceptional team through your support.

Congratulations to the entire team on another amazing year – the next riveting chapter in the story of Lineage.

From my family to yours, have a safe, blessed and happy holiday season!

All the best, Greg