Why a cold-storage company just delivered the year’s hottest IPO

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Fresh lobster from Maine. Bags of frozen peas. Racks of ribs, shrink-wrapped in plastic.

Americans have come to expect that with a click of a button, almost any item, perishable or not, can be delivered to their homes the next day. The company that makes this all possible is a logistics operator most of us have never heard of but all of us depend on daily. The world’s biggest cold-storage operator by capacity, Lineage, is so deeply embedded in the U.S.

economy that when it listed its stock on the Nasdaq exchange this past week, it was the largest initial public offering in the U.S. so far this year. At $78 a share, the IPO raised $4.4 billion and valued Lineage at more than $18 billion.

Cold storage is a centuries-old industry, but Lineage’s own lineage is young. It was founded in 2008 by two former Morgan Stanley investment bankers, Adam Forste and Kevin Marchetti. Since then, the duo has amassed an empire that today operates nearly a third of the temperature-controlled warehouse space in the U.S.

The Novi, Mich.-based company, which counts Kraft Heinz, Darden Restaurants and Walmart among its clients, operates more than 480 temperature-controlled warehouses around the world. The business handles logistics operations such as storing, picking and packing items and offers e-commerce fulfillment, transportation and customs-brokerage services. The success of Lineage is a function not just of fortuitous timing, but also a savvy recognition that the businesses storing and transporting the perishable items Americans have come to rely on could be rolled up and streamlined.