Cargill Protein announced that it is centralizing its regional warehousing operations to improve capacity and supply chain efficiency and to grow by serving retail, foodservice and food ingredient customers from a hub in the Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) metroplex in Texas. This includes consolidating San Antonio, Texas, and Oklahoma City, Okla., operations into the regional hub.

"The DFW area was the logical choice for Cargill to centralize our regional warehousing operation as it has an excellent warehouse, distribution and logistics infrastructure and major highways to all of our key markets in the region," Cargill Food Distribution general manager Rick Johnson said. "The move underscores Cargill's commitment to design food distribution systems focused on delivering wholesome, sustainable and affordable food to consumers. It allows Cargill to scale our growth by providing customers greater capacity, more product variety and more efficient distribution."

Cargill customers will continue to receive service during the transition to the regional hub. The new DFW warehouse distribution center will be operated by a contractor and will begin serving customers in the fall of 2018. The location also supports closer collaboration with other Cargill protein businesses, including multiple value-added meat processing facilities located in the DFW area, the announcement said.

The DFW distribution center joins Cargill Food Distribution warehouse operations strategically located around the U.S. that serve retailers, foodservice operators and food processors to help them prosper and help their communities thrive.

Headquartered in Wichita, Kan., Cargill Protein produces, distributes and markets beef, turkey, chicken and egg products to retail, foodservice and food ingredient companies throughout North America and exports meat and byproducts around the world. Cargill Protein has 28,000 employees and more than three dozen protein processing facilities in the U.S. and Canada and is a unit of Minneapolis, Minn.-based Cargill Inc.

Cargill is a 150-year-old company that provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services globally, with 155,000 employees in 70 countries.