As the global economy braces for another year of change, the food supply chain remains in constant motion. Trade dynamics, regulatory changes, and evolving logistics capacity are redrawing the map for global food movement, making data even more critical to withstand volatility.
Supply chains are being rewired in real time, and the companies that thrive will be those that not only anticipate change but have partners ready to evolve alongside them.
Lineage, the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, has spent the past year helping customers do just that. As volatility tests every link in the supply chain, companies have increasingly turned to partners who can scale with them, respond quickly in moments of disruption, and translate data-driven strategies into practical, measurable results.
Resilience in Action: The Race Against Tariffs
When the U.S. imposed tariffs on beef earlier this year, ripple effects spread quickly across the protein sector. For customers caught in that disruption, a global cold chain network could serve as a critical shock absorber.
A frozen food manufacturer faced the prospect of major disruption to its U.S. retail supply as a result of new tariffs on Canadian imports, which threatened to slow cross-border shipments. With deadlines approaching, the manufacturer turned to Lineage, who mobilized quickly.
By identifying a facility near the border and coordinating warehousing, transportation, and customs clearance, the team kept product moving without delay. Using Lineage Link® platform for real-time visibility, the customer avoided costly interruptions, turning a potential trade crisis into a case study in supply chain agility – showing that while it’s important to be able to react quickly, it’s also essential to have the right tools and team in place.
Strategic Growth: Growing Without the Pain
Expanding a food supply chain is often a balancing act – scaling fast enough to meet demand without losing efficiency or quality. When one frozen produce manufacturer and distributor identified a 105 million-pound harvest that far exceeded their existing cold storage capacity, Lineage acted quickly to streamline their network by consolidating multivendor shipments under a single, integrated cold chain solution.
The result was smoother coordination, improved speed to market, and greater control across distribution points. The partnership turned a complex expansion into a scalable, repeatable model for growth. This model gives shippers the flexibility to adapt during high-demand seasons while maintaining reliability. By combining multimodal transport, real-time tracking, and data-driven planning to keep products moving safely and on time, scalable growth doesn’t have to come with growing pains.
Data in Motion: Building Smarter Supply Chains
As the food industry grows more complex, visibility and precision have become the new currency of supply chain performance. At a time when it is increasingly difficult for importers and distributors to make network decisions based on instinct alone, success now depends on harnessing data to predict, plan, and act with confidence.
For one major importer facing capacity constraints in the Northeast creating bottlenecks, growing efficiently meant rethinking its entire U.S. distribution network. The company needed a data-backed strategy that could meet today’s demand and scale for tomorrow.
Lineage’s Data Science team conducted a Transportation and Facility Network Optimization analysis – evaluating years of historical shipment data, supplier and retailer locations, and port performance. The analysis revealed an opportunity to expand the customer’s network to four distribution centers and new markets with more capacity – significantly reducing annual transportation costs. Moving inventory to markets with greater capacity and proximity to the product’s final destination also relieves bottlenecks and improves delivery service levels.
By pairing data with operational expertise, Lineage helped the customer model a more efficient network, with the potential to yield up to $2 million in annual transportation savings. The project underscored how precision analytics and a strategic network can transform cold chain decision-making from reactive to proactive.
The Road Ahead
As global supply chains continue to evolve, resilience will hinge not just infrastructure, but data and insight. From rapid response during trade disruptions to smart, scalable growth and data-driven optimization, Lineage is helping the food industry move faster, think smarter, and stay prepared for whatever comes next.
