Baldor Specialty Foods Opens Washington, D.C.-Area Facility
Premium and specialty food distributor Baldor Specialty Foods is expanding its restaurant and foodservice capabilities with the opening of a new facility in the Washington, D.C., area on Sept. 17. Located on Lanham, Md.’s Hargrove Industrial Campus, the new 100,000-square-foot warehouse is only 12 miles away from metropolitan Washington, D.C., and in close proximity to major highways.
Representing a significant investment in Baldor’s growing operations in the D.C. metro area, the facility enhances its ability to serve customers across Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Virginia. The new warehouse, which includes 35 dock doors and state-of-the-art refrigeration and frozen storage capabilities, will enable the company to scale its operations, boost delivery efficiencies and continue sourcing fresh local products. It will also support local employment, with 140 employees at present and plans to hire many more, among them drivers and warehouse staff.
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“Our commitment at Baldor is to our customers, our vendor partners and our employees — everything we do needs to be a win for all three,” said TJ Murphy, CEO and owner of Bronx, N.Y.-based Baldor. “As our business has rapidly expanded in the Washington, D.C., area, we knew we needed a facility that could match the pace of our growth and support our commitment to getting our customers the best products as efficiently as possible. At the same time, we wanted to maximize product sales for our vendors, and bring on more local farmers and producers while also increasing career and salary opportunities for our employees. With this move, we believe we have hit the trifecta.”
The Lanham facility will be the fourth hub for Baldor’s operations, joining the company’s Bronx headquarters and regional hubs in Boston and Philadelphia. Baldor first launched in the area in 2012, with a small cross-dock facility in Jessup, Md.; this facility ultimately grew to serve 1,000 of the company’s 14,000-plus total customers. The company sought out the Lanham site in November 2022, and the lease signing marked the start of extensive renovations, including the installation of temperature-controlled refrigeration and freezing rooms to ensure optimal storage conditions for Baldor’s diverse range of perishable products. A full warehouse that’s eight times the size of the former cross-dock facility, the Lanham facility will house 7,000 products and feature advanced picking capabilities.
“This facility represents the perfect harmony of proximity to our customers and proximity to talent,” explained Dominic Vasold, Baldor’s director of D.C. operations. “We’re sitting close to the intersection of I-495 and Route 50, and we’re not far from I-95 and I-295. This allows us to optimize delivery time and routes, ensuring efficiencies from Annapolis, Md., to Arlington, Va., and everywhere in between. Prince George’s County has the right workforce for our needs. Plus, the size of this facility allows us to store large volumes of diverse products very effectively. Also, we’ve left ourselves with lots of room to grow, as we forecast a strong trajectory in the region.”
Baldor’s investment in the Lanham area goes beyond the operational advantages of the new facility: the company is also sourcing from local farmers and suppliers, providing a platform for area businesses to succeed.
Family-owned Baldor Specialty Foods is a distributor of premium fresh produce, specialty foods, dairy, meat and fish in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The company now services more than 14,000 food service, retail and corporate accounts from Portland, Maine, to Richmond, Va., and offers more than 7,000 food items.
