Built to Serve: The Story of our Warehouses

Starting Small

The facilities story at Four Seasons began the same way the company itself began — small.

Since the 1950s, David Hollinger’s family ran a roadside stand that grew into a farm market and eventually a grocery store in Ephrata, PA. As a young adult, he became the produce manager and took a keen interest in produce buying, eventually starting to wholesale produce to other local business from his parents’ store. Not long after, an opportunity came along — a 5,000-square-foot building in Denver, Pennsylvania.

Could that small building become something more?

That question led to the start of the wholesale business: Four Seasons Produce.

In those early years, the operation was simple. There was one tractor trailer, a handful of straight trucks, and routing was done by hand on paper. Drivers would run their routes, then come back and help in the warehouse. Everyone pitched in wherever they were needed.

The goal was not to build something big.

It was to take care of customers and keep improving.

But the business kept growing.

By the mid 1980s, the original space could no longer keep up. Four Seasons built a 25,000-square-foot facility, a major step forward that allowed the company to expand its capability and reach — especially with independent retailers.

For a while, it was enough.

Then it wasn’t.

Making Room to Grow

Growth did not slow down.

Within a few years, the larger building filled up. The company expanded again — and then again.

What started as one warehouse became three. Then five.

By the late 1990s, the operation was spread across multiple buildings throughout the area. Product moved between warehouses. Trailers shifted constantly. Drivers spent part of their day transferring loads just to keep everything connected.

Inside the buildings, space was tight. Offices were crowded. Teams worked side by side with little room to spare.

It was an all-hands-on-deck environment. People worked long hours, doing whatever was needed to keep the business moving.

And it did keep moving.

Four Seasons continued to grow its customer base — especially independent retailers across the region — and built a reputation for service that set it apart.

But it also revealed something important.

Growth had created complexity.

Bringing it all together

At some point, the question became unavoidable:

What would it look like to bring everything under one roof?

That idea had been building for years. With product moving between five facilities and operations spread across locations, the inefficiency was clear.

Bringing everything together would be a major step.

In fact, it would become one of the biggest steps the company had ever taken.

That step became the development of 400 Wabash Road in Ephrata, PA, a 200,000 ft state-of-the-art refrigerated distribution center and corporate headquarters, complete with a new packing operation and truck shop.

When the facility opened in 2004, it changed everything.

For the first time, product could move through a single, integrated operation instead of traveling between multiple buildings. Fewer transfers meant fewer touches. Fewer touches meant fewer delays, less damage, and better flow.

The improvement was immediate.

But the impact went beyond operations.

400 Wabash represented something bigger.

It was a commitment to building not just for today’s needs, but for what the company could become.

Seeing the Details