Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-07-22)

F I N A N C E

26

Edited by

Pat Regnier

July22, 2019

While his friends played in the Florida sunshine,

Elliot Greenbaum, then 11, was often bundled up in

coat and hat, sweeping the floors in his dad’s refrig-

erated warehouse. As a teenager, he operated the

forklift and loaded Danish canned hams into station

wagons bound for Cuban sandwich shops.

Now73,Greenbaumis closingthebusinesshe

inheritedfromhisPolishimmigrantfather,unable

tocompeteina $6billionrefrigeratedstorageindus-

trydominatedbyinstitutionalinvestorsscalingupto

servefoodgiantssuchasUnileverNVandNestléSA.

Asa result,someofhissmallercustomers—which

recently included a specialty frozen-dog-food maker

and a kombucha startup—are at risk of getting shut

out of the cold. “We’re losing the exotic things that

make America great,” says Greenbaum, who just

sold his last warehouse. “Now other people far away

are deciding how your ice cream should taste.”

● Investorsloverefrigerated

warehouses,andthatcouldhurt

some smallfoodcompanies

▶ Greenbaum is

closing the business

his father built

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL ADNO FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. DATA: CBRE

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