Habco opens Hammond distribution center to cut freight costs for operators

“Seventy-five percent of our customers are located in the southern U.S. states, and about three-quarters of those are based from Texas eastward,” Strong said. The company then focused its search for a distribution center on Houston, Texas, and Hammond, Louisiana, Strong said, and “the Hammond facility was better equipped to handle our activities.”

The location places Habco close to the Interstate 10 corridor, its primary east-west shipping route, and near the Port of New Orleans to receive international shipments, Strong noted.

The new site currently handles light assembly and distribution rather than full manufacturing. Even so, it is helping relieve space constraints at Habco’s Toronto, Ontario, production facility at a time when the company has grown substantially and industrial real estate in Toronto is at a premium, he said.

Strong emphasized that the new operation is particularly important for the replacement market for coolers and freezers. When units fail in the field, operators face immediate lost sales and potential damage to relationships with their accounts. “Our new distribution model helps get them their equipment sooner and at a lower cost,” he said.

The Hammond center also supports Habco’s national distribution partners that carry a range of Habco models. Strong said those distributors, like AVS Companies, can continue to inventory core products while relying on the new facility to drop ship additional units directly to operators when urgent needs arise.

Beyond full equipment shipments, Habco has also reworked its parts distribution through the Louisiana site. According to Strong, operators and distributors now have access to a wider range of products and parts, delivered faster and at a lower landed cost. This includes parts used under Habco’s warranty program as well as replacement components needed after warranty, an area where speed and freight cost are major considerations for operators.

Strong added that tariffs did not play a role in the decision to open the new center. Habco’s products are compliant with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) and are not currently subject to tariffs, he said.

Looking ahead to 2026, Strong said Habco is working on several artificial intelligence–enabled cooler solutions for unattended retail that the company plans to showcase at the NAMA Show in 2026. He also noted that Habco recently launched an original equipment manufacturer-integrated Sandstar AI Vision cooler and freezer offering, which is available through its distributors in the United States.