Americold celebrated the grand opening of its new $100+ million Import-Export Hub in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 12. Pictured above during the ribbon cutting ceremony are (left to right) Rob Chambers, president of Americold; Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas; Americold CEO George Chappelle; and Keith Creel, president and chief executive officer of CPKC.
Developed in partnership with Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the 335,000-square-foot facility is its first on the CPKC rail network and a key hub for the Mexico Midwest Express (MMX), North America’s only single-line rail service for refrigerated goods between the United States and Mexico.
Key features include on-site USDA inspections to eliminate border delays; load capacity exceeding 50,000 pounds per container to reduce highway congestion; and a 300-mile service radius supporting regional food flow. Beyond the immediate region, the facility also serves as a strategic consolidation point for longer-haul shipments, including flows from Canada to Mexico, particularly for customers facing border inefficiencies or trucking capacity challenges.
“This is more than infrastructure – it’s a fully integrated solution that connects food producers to consumers faster and more efficiently,” said CEO Chappelle. “By combining our cold storage capabilities and food flow expertise with CPKC’s rail network, we’re creating a new North American cold chain that delivers real value to our customers. Simply put, we’ve unlocked a better way to move food.”
“This grand opening marks the realization of a shared vision and what is today a growing strategic collaboration delivering new rail service products to the market,” said CPKC’s Creel. “This facility is the first of many across our unrivaled North American network. By combining Americold with our secure, single-line cross-border service, we have created a new refrigerated supply chain for customers shipping food and other temperature-controlled products across Canada, the United States and Mexico.”
This Kansas City operation is part of a broader network of Import-Export Hubs Americold is developing through strategic partnerships to support global trade lanes and enable fast, seamless movement of food across North America and around the world. It reflects the power of public-private collaboration to modernize infrastructure and improve how food moves from origin to destination.
The project is expected to create nearly 190 jobs and significantly enhance regional and cross-border food logistics.
“Americold’s investment in Kansas City not only brings new jobs – it brings opportunity,” said Tracey Lewis, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City. “This project strengthens our logistics infrastructure and creates pathways for local talent to thrive in a fast-growing sector. It’s the kind of momentum we love to see for our city and our people.”
In business for over 120 years, Atlanta, Georgia-headquartered Americold is a global leader in temperature-controlled logistics. The company operates more than 230 facilities across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America offering approximately 1.4 billion cubic feet of refrigerated space.
