March/April 2014 • 18
get blackberries from the Himalaya's that
are as big as a thumb and taste like they
have sugar on them," Brian stated.
The company storing the fruit is based
in Austria, but employees nearly 25 peo-
ple within the warehouse. They have
built a freestanding laboratory inside the
warehouse to conduct quality testing on
the products as they arrive in the facility
and are stored.
Mr. Venturi went on to explain that "we
ship the fruit directly to the Dannon and
Yoplait plants." In fact, Mr. Venturi re-
ported that all of the fruit in any Dannon
or Yoplait yogurt comes from the Maren-
go Warehouse, an impressive feat for a
relatively small, local company.
In another area of the warehouse you
will fnd a freestanding ofce structure
dedicated to managing the Bridgestone
Firestone tire section. These tunnels con-
tain thousands of new tires ready to be
distributed. With three loading docks
for semi trucks dedicated to this section
there is always a futter of activity in
these areas.
"This company has held a contract for
18 out of our 20 years in business. At one
point they had 1.6 million tires here,"
Brian explained.
The warehouse in total has 1.4 mil-
lion square feet of developed space. On
an average day, 60 semi-trucks load and
unload shipments inside various areas
of the facility. The roads and passage-
ways are completely navigable via car
and truck, and there is ample room for
a semi-truck to turn around if necessary.
The warehouse in total has 1.4 million square feet of developed space. On an average
day, 60 semi-trucks load and unload shipments inside various areas of the facility.
Above: Bridgestone Firestone tires, military MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), and frozen fruit
are among the millions of pounds stored underground at Marengo Warehouse.
Pictured at right: A quality control facility in the warehouse.
// Marengo Warehouse
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