Santa Maria Food Facility Dedicated

Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino joined executives from the Lineage Logistics Company to cut the ribbon on a new state-of-the-art food processing facility just off West La Brea Avenue.

Residents have been watching construction of the 226,000 square foot facility for almost a year. Framing of the massive building started in January.

30 full-time employees have been hired to work in the plant and one of them believes Santa Maria is becoming a hub for commercial-sized freezers.

“It seems like every two years a new facility is being built and it is good for the entire community,” said Rene Cantu.

The facility’s manager said in addition to fresh berries, the plant will be able to process vegetables, seafood and any commodity that needs temperature-controlled storage.

William Hendricksen from Lineage Logistics said the company picked Santa Maria because “it made more sense to build the facility here than to expand our Oxnard facility to save [growers] the cost of transporting the goods.”