Pearl River, a small town of just over 2,600 residents in St. Tammany Parish, is now home to the latest expansion for Agile Cold Storage, a rapidly growing company based in Gainesville, Georgia, that provides customized storage and logistics solutions for food producers across the continent.
Founded in 2020 by a team of industry veterans led by CEO Don Schoenl, Agile is a relative newcomer to the cold storage industry. But the company is expanding fast, with 10 facilities now operating across the U.S. and Canada.
The cold storage industry itself is expanding rapidly, too. According to Precedence Research, the North American market is worth over $59 billion and growing at nearly double-digit rates annually, which has enabled Agile’s ascent.
This growth has landed the company the No. 9 spot in the Global Cold Chain Alliance’s 2025 list of the top 25 largest refrigerated warehousing and logistics companies in North America.
The new Pearl River facility (which opened last month) marks the company’s strategic leap into the Gulf Coast export market.
“From the bayous to the bustling cities, our new warehouse in Louisiana is not just bricks and steel,” said Don Schoenl, the company’s president and CEO, in a press release. “It’s a testament to our growth and dedication to serving this incredible community with efficiency and pride.”
Agile’s new facility is framed as a symbiotic relationship between Pearl River’s residents and the company’s global ambitions, a partnership that aims to benefit all parties economically and structurally.
Pearl River Provides A Strategic Sweet Spot
Geographical considerations proved to be a deciding factor when selecting the location for this facility. Positioned near the crossroads of Interstates 10, 12 and 59, the small town in St. Tammany Parish offers uncommon access to major distribution routes in the Gulf South.
“We wanted to be within 50 miles of Port NOLA to best service our customers,” said John Ripple, Agile’s chief development officer. “This location hit that mark and more.”
Agile’s new facility sits in the heart of the region’s “heavyweight corridor,” a 50-mile zone that allows the transportation of overweight containers directly to the port. That status lets the company efficiently funnel containerized freight from its customers in Louisiana and Mississippi to international routes without sacrificing speed or compliance.
Even beyond logistics, the physical site itself holds meaning. The 10-acre property also houses the historic St. Joe Brick Works, a family-run operation dating back over a century. The town was already well accustomed to the presence of industry.
Since Pearl River had already designated the area as an industrial park, officials were enthusiastic about welcoming a project that promised job creation.
“The future home of Agile Cold Storage…further reinforces our message that St. Tammany is the best-positioned location in the Gulf South for significant logistics and distribution economic development projects,” said Chris Masingill, CEO of St. Tammany Corporation.
State and local agencies came together to help make the deal work. Louisiana Economic Development provided workforce training through its FastStart program and offered a $1.5 million performance-based grant to support site improvements.
Strategically, the move fills a key gap in Agile’s national footprint.
“Agile Pearl River is our first facility west of the Mississippi and allows us to operate in import/export and domestic food services in the South-Central region of America,” Ripple said.
In other words, this location is a launch point for Agile’s long-term strategy, as well as a more-than-welcome investment for the town.
“Agile Cold Storage is exactly the type of business that we welcome in Pearl River,” said Mayor Joe Lee. “This is truly a right-fit project for our local economy.”
The Regional Impact
In a town the size of Pearl River, an investment nearing $46 million is quite notable.
Agile Cold Storage’s new 120,000-square-foot facility marks one of the largest movements of capital the community has seen in years. This economic engine is set to reshape the region’s job market and role in global trade.
The company estimates it will employ between 90 and 100 people at the Pearl River site with an average annual salary of approximately $53,000.
According to Ripple, the team has already hired “about 80 to 90 good-paying jobs in the community,” with roles that include benefits and opportunities for advancement.
He also emphasized the facility’s monetary strategy for bringing in employees: “We’ve had a pretty good time staffing the facility, partly because we’ve been paying a little bit above market… to leave their current employer and come over to us.”
That wage pressure is certain to make waves. As Agile’s compensation sets a new local benchmark, neighboring employers may be prompted to adjust if they want to stay competitive. Agile is helping to raise Pearl River’s wage floor not only for their own employees, but the town’s labor market.
Louisiana Economic Development has projected that the project will create roughly 95 additional indirect jobs statewide, bringing the total number of roles tied to the facility close to 200.
State and parish leaders have applauded the development as a turning point for economic diversification on the Northshore.
“This project is a win for the Northshore, the state economy and the workers of Louisiana,” said LED Secretary Susan Bonnett Bourgeois. “Agile Cold Storage’s investment demonstrates the unique logistical advantages Louisiana has to offer businesses that keep America’s supply chains flowing smoothly.”
By docking this cold-chain hub in Pearl River, Agile has opened new doors for the town, and tied St. Tammany Parish more directly into the center of global food distribution.
People-First Innovation
Most modern cold storage facilities are equipped with a level of standard automation. But in a deliberate move, Agile Cold Storage chose not to automate this site in the traditional sense.
“The products we’re receiving and shipping aren’t highly suited to a traditional warehouse automation technology,” Ripple explained. The Pearl River facility primarily handles poultry, much of it arriving raw and boxed, but not uniform enough for robotic handling systems.
Instead, Agile built a facility around human efficiency, pairing skilled workers with tools and infrastructure designed to keep operations running smoothly.
Employees operate within a highly sophisticated homegrown warehouse management system, which Ripple said allows staff to train quickly and maintain inventory accuracy.
One of its most future-facing features is an electrified yard, which allows refrigerated containers to stay cold without relying on diesel generators.
“We have big electrical outlets out in the truck court where we can plug containers in, pre-cool them, and hold them cold without burning fuel,” Ripple added.
From there, the containers head to the Port of New Orleans, where they plug into the grid again. This process creates an end-to-end electric cold chain.
Another noteworthy inclusion to the facility is its heated forklift cabs.
“Working inside a minus-10 freezer is hard,” said Ripple. “But our forklift operators are sitting in enclosed, heated cabs. It’s not cheap, and it takes more energy to keep them warm, but it makes a big difference in their day-to-day working conditions.”
While certainly good for morale, this investment is also a wise choice for an industry that can struggle to attract and maintain labor. Innovation at Pearl River is not just built to support the warehouse, it seems, but also the people behind the operation.
For all its tech-forward features, however, the Pearl River facility’s most defining characteristic might be its people.
At Agile Cold Storage, Ripple said success is measured not in output but on a culture rooted in safety, efficiency and accuracy.
“Everybody in the entire company is incentivized around those three things,” he said. “Part of your weekly compensation is tied to arriving safely, working efficiently and maintaining inventory accuracy.”
From the top down, the company prioritizes internal growth. In fact, many of the management teams across its facilities are made up of individuals who started on the warehouse floor. Ripple explained that it’s common for team members to rise from laborers to leads, then to supervisors and into management roles.
That approach has already shaped Pearl River’s leadership team, a team that, Ripple emphasized, is local.
“At the current time in Pearl River, we have a grand total of one person who isn’t local,” said Ripple. Most hires live within a 20-mile radius of the facility, recruited with help from an on-site HR supervisor. The roles range from material handlers to logistics technicians, and many were drawn to Agile by its above-market pay and promise of upward mobility.
“When we open the next building,” he added, “we hope one or two people from Pearl River will raise their hand for a promotion and relocate.”
Fast Growth
Agile has expanded at a pace few in the cold storage industry can match.
“We have 10 buildings now, and we’re making plans for the next 10,” said Ripple.
Since joining Agile four years ago, Ripple has overseen every phase of development for the company’s locations, spread across the country, from site selection and permitting to construction and startup. And while he spends a lot of time on logistics and land deals, the company’s core growth strategy is rooted in something else: customer alignment.
“We work with our customers during development to make sure we’ve got their requirements incorporated… selecting locations based on customer needs,” Ripple explained.
That approach shaped the Pearl River decision. Agile’s anchor clients were looking to move mainly poultry products from Mississippi and Louisiana to international markets.
Rather than retrofit an existing warehouse, Agile chose to build one from scratch within the port’s heavyweight corridor, close enough to support client operations without compromising efficiency or workforce access.
This company intends to replicate this model.
As Agile plans its next wave of expansion, Ripple and his team are applying the same principles: build where there’s need, invest in infrastructure that fits the product, and ensure the people running the operation are empowered to succeed.
“We hope we’re going to provide a good service for our customers in an efficient building that is efficiently located, efficiently run and efficient in terms of utility usage,” Ripple said.
As trucks begin rolling in and out of this new facility, one can see that this development is more meaningful than another link in the global supply chain. For local residents, and for the region as a whole, this facility indicates a new and hopeful chapter.
