Customer Solutions

Maple Leaf Farms, Milford, Indiana, is America's premier producer of quality duck products for home and food service. The family-owned company utilizes Hanson Logistics for dedicated transportation and drop trailers, shuttling finished goods to a Hanson warehousing facility.

On the morning of March 16, 2006, the intensity of Hanson service changed dramatically. Freak straight-line winds ripped the siding off the Maple Leaf Farms refrigerated distribution center, exposing racks of frozen duck entrees.

“It took everyone by surprise, even the National Weather Service,” said Don Ratliff, Vice President of Operations, Maple Leaf Farms. “We put a call into Hanson Logistics as soon as we saw the extent of the damage. They responded quickly, and we were able to minimize product loss and keep our distribution process pretty much intact. But it was quite an ordeal.”

Hanson Logistics launched an around the clock shuttle and warehouse operation to move fresh and frozen ducks and poultry from the damaged Milford, Indiana facility to Hanson’s Benton Harbor, Michigan refrigerated warehouse 71 miles away. The intense, short-term project would eventually require product relocation to two other nearby Hanson facilities. Hanson dedicated two trucks, reefer trailers and drivers to shuttle the finished production from the Milford, IN processing facility to the Hanson facilities.

All in all, more than 3,800 pallets were relocated and Hanson warehouse staffing was more than doubled, with crews working 24/7. Hanson IT moved quickly to replicate the order processing, scanning and information management processes that had been in place at the damaged distribution center.

Once all the product was relocated, Maple Leaf Farms relied on Hanson Logistics to handle outbound shipping of more than 60,000 cases of frozen entrees per week, taking full advantage of Hanson’s turnkey temperature-controlled supply chain services: warehousing, order processing, transportation and information management.

Today, with operations back to normal, Hanson continues shuttle service between Hanson and Maple Leaf facilities, warehousing and outbound transportation.


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Cole's Quality Foods, Inc., makers of Cole’s garlic bread and other frozen bread products, turned to Hanson Logistics for outsourced transportation and related supply chain activities. Hanson Logistics manages a customized transportation program for procurement, optimization, visibility, and compliance. The program takes advantage of Hanson transportation capacity and distribution facilities, while leveraging Hanson consolidation program and information systems.

“Hanson has much greater access to carrier capacity and can give us better visibility across the supply chain,” said John Sommavilla, President, Cole’s Quality Foods, Inc. “Day-to-day, they interface with our customer service to build optimum loads, while managing both inbound and outbound. Long-term, they are mapping out the most responsive and cost-effective fulfillment process. This allows us to focus on our core competency, as a leading brand in bread and bakery products.”

The Cole's program exemplifies how mid-sized consumer product companies can cost effectively meet the sophisticated order deliver criteria of major retailers through strategic inventory placement and multi-vendor consolidation, such as Hanson’s Velocities™ program.


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How do you harvest, process and distribute, annually, the largest “Tart Cherry” crop produced in the United States? You rely on a strong relationship between local Michigan Agricultural Cooperatives and Hanson Logistics locations.

One such relationship involves the Hanson Logistics refrigerated warehouse facility in Hart Michigan and two separate “Grower/Processor” operations sharing a production facility with a physical production access, by forklift to Hanson Logistics at Hart. The two production operations developed a unique facility use agreement to produce tart cherry products received from growers harvesting along the entire western shore of Lake Michigan during July and part of August, this immediately proceeds the beginning of long period of harvesting a large variety of vegetables lasting until December. The efficient use of the production facility results in lower overhead and production costs and adds needed production capacity needed for a 6 to 8 week Michigan tart cherry harvest regularly exceeding well over 220 million pounds.

In addition, production from both processors is taken directly from the production lines to Hanson Logistics “freezer” storage with no additional transportation costs! The product can then be transported to its final customer destination, anywhere in the United States or Canada, via Hanson Logistics operations.


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How can the supplier of Copaxone®, the first innovative drug developed in Israel and approved by the FDA, best manufacture and distribute its product in the US? By partnering with Hanson Logistics, the Midwest preferred provider of logistics and refrigerated storage solutions.

This international logistics process is time and temperature critical. Teva express ships Glatiramer Acetate (GA), the active ingredient of Copaxone®, packed two five gallon tubs per box, from Israel to the Hanson distribution facility in Lafayette, Indiana. The tubs of GA, packed in 50 lbs. of dry ice, are unboxed (the boxes, Styrofoam liners and packing material are saved) and the product is stored at -5º F until released for processing. Hanson reports temperature, weight and batch numbers back to the Teva as part of the detailed receiving process.

When released, the GA is re-boxed in its original container with dry ice and dispatched to a nearby pharmaceutical lab for further processing. The finished product, injectable Copaxone®, used in the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, is returned to Hanson Logistics in Lafayette in a refrigerated state (36º F). The syringes of Copaxone® are stored in Hanson’s coolers (36º - 44º F) until released for shipment through Teva USA to pharmacies and hospitals nationwide.

Critical logistics processes, high value products, accuracy — more reasons why Hanson Logistics is the preferred provider.


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Make no beans about it — Hanson Logistics provides the “hands on” temperature-controlled network and expertise for safe, efficient moving and storing vegetables from the fields in California to processing plants in Michigan.

Hanson Logistics in Hartford, Michigan provides Twin City Foods with trans-loading services and frozen temperature warehousing for vegetables to be used by their poly-bagging plant in Lake Odessa, Michigan. The Hanson Hart facility is designed to accommodate food processing scenarios — rail siding, bulk and racked deep frozen storage, and additional capacity for the ebb and flow of harvested products.

Twin City Foods ships totes of corn, beans and peas via rail from California to Hartford, The totes are trans-loaded via Hanson Logistics to as many as three Hanson warehouses in the area for frozen storage. As needed the totes are shipped to the Twin City plant in Lake Odessa, Michigan for poly-bagging and distribution to various retail DC’s. By keeping products in a bulk state until needed, Twin City Foods benefits from postponement — added flexibility and cost-containment when packaging to meet demand.


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For more than 30 years Hanson Logistics has supported the largest pork processing plant east of the Mississippi, located in Logansport, Indiana. Hanson Logistics provides blast freezing, slow freezing, certification, stamping and exporting services. What began as Wilson Foods, then IBP, Inc., the Tyson Foods pork processing facility has an output of 12,000 hogs a day. Hanson Logistics supports this facility by working the hours correlating to the plant operations, which is usually 24 hours per day, 6 days per week.

The Hanson Logistics staff supports the throughput of more than 200,000,000 pounds of product, half of which is loaded on approximately 300 rail cars for export to Mexico, the Far East, Russia and Europe.

Our attention to detail, observance of safety procedures and relationship with the USDA inspectors allows Hanson to operate such an active business with professionalism and the consistent application of “Yes, We Can!” in everything we do.

Over the years, Hanson has invested in added warehouse capacity to accommodate additional customers, and the continuous improvement processes and high-volume systems refined in Logansport have been implemented in other Hanson facilities where the company operates similar support operations in the pork, beef and poultry industries.

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To learn more about Hanson Logistics please contact us toll free at 888.772.1197 or fill out the Contact Us form for more information.