How a pet treat maker fit a refrigerated container inside its warehouse

A natural pet treat maker that started in a New York kitchen moved to Nashville, TN to scale up, and its frozen raw material quickly outgrew the space. ZGROUP placed a 20' refrigerated container inside the warehouse. It was a tight fit that took careful planning, and the brand now has the frozen capacity to keep growing.

The challenge

Growth is the good kind of problem, but it still has to be solved. Moving from a kitchen to a factory changes the volume of everything, and raw material is often the first thing to run out of room.

For this pet chew brand, the constraint was frozen storage. The new facility had space for production, but the frozen raw material needed its own dedicated capacity. Building a freezer room inside the warehouse would have meant construction work in a building the company had just moved into.

The brand also wanted room for what comes next. A move from kitchen to factory is rarely the last step, and any storage decision had to support growth rather than cap it.

The solution

ZGROUP supplied a 20' reefer and placed it inside the warehouse itself. Putting a container indoors is not the usual setup, and this one was a tight fit. Getting it in took careful planning of the access path and the final position.

The payoff is a freezer that sits steps away from production, protected inside the building, with no permanent construction. The unit runs on a Thermo King refrigeration unit, and because it is a modular unit it can be moved and reinstalled elsewhere if the layout changes.

Just as important, the freezer sits indoors, inside the same building as production, so frozen raw material stays close to where it is used.

The results

• Kitchen → factory growth supported
• Indoor reefer placed inside the warehouse
• Frozen raw material secured

The brand has the frozen capacity to support its next stage of growth, right where production happens.

When does a refrigerated container make sense?

A single refrigerated container is often the right first step for a growing food brand. It adds dedicated cold or frozen capacity without a building project, and it can go outdoors or, with good planning, indoors.

• You need capacity now. ZGROUP delivers in under 60 days and installs in 2 to 5 days, with minimal site prep.
• You need the right temperature. ZGROUP's cold storage line covers -40°F to +104°F (-40°C to +40°C), from freezer to cooler.
• You want to keep options open. Units are available to rent or to buy and can be moved and reinstalled at another site.
• You want visibility. ZTRACK adds remote monitoring of temperature and alarms.

When volume keeps climbing, the next step is often a modular walk-in. One ZSTORE XL unit provides 320 ft² of floor space and about 20 pallet positions, and XL modules connect side by side into one open space. Because modules share the space, fewer refrigeration units are needed per square foot than with single containers.

Placement is worth planning early. Outdoors, a reefer needs a level spot and access for delivery. Indoors, the questions are door clearances, the path to the final position and room around the unit. ZGROUP works through those details before delivery, which is what made this indoor installation possible.

Refrigerated container sizes

Refrigerated containers come in 10', 20', 40' and 53' lengths, from 4 to 30 pallets. The 40' is the most popular: twice the space of a 20' (20 pallets versus 9) for about the same energy consumption. A 20', as in this project, is the right call when space is tight, indoors or out; a 10' suits small volumes and backup.

Every unit holds -40°F to +104°F, so it works as a freezer or a cooler. See all refrigerated containers, or our walk-in freezer options when volume keeps growing.

Is it right for your operation?

If your cold or frozen inventory is outgrowing your building, a reefer can add capacity fast, inside or outside. Explore our Refrigerated containers or talk to our team about your space and volumes.