Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/488317
96 / the tasting panel / april 2015 A s Wayne E. Chaplin, Southern Wine & Spirits' President and CEO, took the podium to greet the 200 guests gath- ered for the opening ceremony of the company's new Union City supply center, a hush fell over the warehouse floor. It was the quietest moment the 334,000-sqaure-foot, state-of-the- art facility is likely to ever see. This facility opening—following closely on the heels of a smaller, 167,000-square-foot Southern facility opening in Tracy, California in 2013—the Atlantic Street warehouse employs the most advanced automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) at work in the beverage industry to date. The state-of-the-art facility was designed by HPA Architecture—with Yong Nam as the chief designer. for Southern's Big Business Wayne E. Chaplin, President and CEO of Southern Wine & Spirits, and Steve Harden, VP, General Manager, Northern California, survey the new state- of-the-art Atlantic Street distribution center. At its Atlantic Street warehouse, Southern employs the most advanced automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) at work in the beverage industry to date. SOUTHERN WINE & SPIRITS OPTIMIZES ITS CALIFORNIA WAREHOUSING ABILITIES by Deborah Parker Wong / photos by John Curley Home Base