New Record for Sugar Shipped in One Day
iscnewsroom | Jun 21, 2010
Forklifts at the Imperial Sugar Port Wentworth warehouse leave trails of light as they load a record number of trucks.
It was a Friday in May, and in Imperial Sugar’s Port Wentworth warehouse, employees were bustling and trucks were lined up to be loaded with pallets of sugar. On that day, May 28, in a single 16-hour shift, the warehouse loaded and shipped out 71 truckloads of sugar for distribution – a new record for the rebuilt refinery.
To the warehouse team, it felt like old times.
“The volume on that day brought back a lot of memories for us,” says Robert Deloach, the warehouse team leader. “The team felt like we were back to business as usual.”
Before the 2008 explosion at Port Wentworth, it wasn’t unusual for the team to load up to double that amount of sugar during a shift. In those days, Deloach says, Port Wentworth security often came to him saying the line of trucks waiting for sugar was blocking traffic on Highway 25, and that the pickup coordinator needed to ask truck drivers to move off the road.
“We’re not to that point yet,” says Deloach, “but on the day, we hit a new record (in the rebuilt refinery), we felt the same sense of urgency and excitement at the plant.”
Trucks load and roll out of the Port Wentworth warehouse.
The brisk business is an unequivocal sign that demand for ISC’s products is up. More trucks moving in and out of the Port Wentworth warehouse means more orders to fill. The trucks – bound for customers or Imperial Sugar’s satellite warehouses – each carry 42,000 to 43,500 pounds of sugar, depending on whether it is extra-fine granulated, brown or powdered.
“It was a great opportunity for the new employees in the warehouse to see the volume of business we expect going forward,” Deloach says. “We’re looking to average 120 to 135 truckloads a day.”
When volume goes up, keeping the operation running smoothly hinges on strong communications. An appointment coordinator must flawlessly synchronize customer pickups and warehouse clerks must operate scales with efficiency. And on May 28, says Deloach, “it all came together.”
