Ivory Choice Terminal

SUCCESS AT IVORY CHOICE TERMINAL IS ABOUT LOCATION AND MUCH MORE

Real estate professionals often rely on that famous catchphrase to promote a property and land a sale. Adhering to that catchphrase was also a major factor in G&W’s decision to purchase the business of the Port of Ivory in Reedley, California, in June 2021. The Port of Ivory is now called Ivory Choice Terminal Co. (ICTC) and is strategically situated on 91 acres of land adjacent to both G&W’s San Joaquin Valley Railroad (SJVR) and Highway 99, a north-south road stretching almost the entire length of California’s 20,000-square-mile Central Valley. This ideally positions ICTC to provide rail-to-truck transload and storage services to a wide range of current and future customers. VALUED TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER “There is no question that ICTC’s location makes it an important and valued transportation provider to businesses in the Central Valley,” says Victor Castillo, ICTC general manager. “But location is only one aspect of ICTC’s total offering. We have connections

“Location, location, location.”

to Union Pacific and BNSF via SJVR, the capacity to handle more than 200 railcars and more than 500,000 square feet of covered storage. We are also cleaning and organizing the property to maximize its potential to meet customers’ needs.” While ICTC’s business has met expectations since G&W took ownership, there have been some challenges for the 19-member ICTC team, which, in addition to Castillo, includes an administrative team, a lead transloader, two general mechanics and 12 transload laborers.

Victor Castillo, Ivory Choice Terminal (ICTC) general manager.

An Ivory Choice Terminal (ICTC) training session.

Ivory Choice Terminal Co. (ICTC) has a highly diverse customer base, which serves it well in today’s uncertain domestic and global economic environment. Here is a look at some of its mainstay customers: • Gavilon: The Omaha-based company provides agricultural products and services to the global agricultural supply chain. • JD Heiskel: The 136-year-old grain and commodity trading business also operates livestock feed manufacturing and transloading facilities in seven U.S. states. • Lone Star Commodities: The Lubbock, Texas-based company handles, stores and markets feed products throughout the southeastern U.S. • Pacific Fibre Products: The company has been producing and delivering high-quality wood chip and bark products to customers in the western U.S. for more than 35 years. • San Joaquin Valley Railroad (SJVR): For 20 years, the G&W road has transloaded up to 6,400 carloads annually of commodities ranging from chickpeas and dehydrated alfalfa to whole cottonseed.

NEVER ACCEPTING THE STATUS QUO “Our biggest challenge is never accepting the status quo,” says Castillo. “We need to continually push ourselves to improve our safety, processes and the quality of our business. We’re here for the long term, which requires building strong, long-lasting partnerships with customers in industries that span multiple states and commodities. The only way to do that is to provide exceptional service and care to each customer every day.”

RAISING THE BAR ON SAFETY Castillo was also challenged to quickly raise the bar on safety for ICTC employees who now found themselves working for the G&W family. “We started to change the safety culture by fully immersing the ICTC team in G&W’s history and increasing their understanding of the importance of safety at G&W,” says Castillo. “We followed this up with boots-on-the-ground training with David Franklin, assistant vice president of operations for G&W’s Western Region companies, and the Western Region safety team, sharing with our employees the purpose and aspects of the G&W safety program as well as the direct role the ICTC team plays in keeping our workplace safe.” So, how was this safety training received? “I think our focus on training has been a breath of fresh air for our employees,” says Castillo. “Everyone wants the opportunity to work in a safe environment, and that is what we are providing. Most importantly, thanks to our increased focus on safety, we have not had a reportable injury in more than 16 months.”

STRONG BUSINESS OUTLOOK Looking ahead, Castillo predicts that ICTC’s business will be strong over the next 18 months. “We are fortunate to have a very stable customer base on which to build,” he said, “and there are many opportunities to grow our business. For example, we recently picked up a unit train a month of agricultural products from Gavilon, a major ICTC customer. And we anticipate adding two more unit trains by the end of 2022.” ICTC, according to Castillo, is also being considered as a site for supplying all the truck stops in the Central Valley with renewable diesel fuel. In addition, the business is in the running to become a supply site for aggregates, which would be used as ballast for California’s publicly funded high-speed rail system currently under construction. n

VCTOR CASTILLO

Transloading at Ivory Choice Terminal in Reedley, California.