After 38 years in the Dot Foods warehouse, there isn’t much Frank Moore hasn’t experienced first-hand.
So in 2019, as Dot’s Canadian market began to grow at a remarkable rate, leadership called upon Frank to lend a hand. At the time, the company occupied an older building and had to figure out flow while much of the new staff was still learning the Dot systems. They had their work cut out for them.
“We needed to figure out how to make that space work while training the team on Dot’s systems, so we brought several folks from Mt. Sterling to help train,” he said.
That same year, Dot purchased a second building to be used primarily for storage. Though this led to the team needing to figure out how to flow the two buildings together to get the product where it needed to be. It was obvious this system was not sustainable for the long run. Eventually the decision was made to invest in a new distribution center in Ingersoll, Ontario–a project Frank would be heavily involved with.
So for much of the last few years, the Mt. Sterling native has made countless trips to Canada, literally watching the facility grow from the ground up, to provide guidance and direction on exactly what it takes to get a DC up and running.
Frank said that witnessing the construction of the Ingersoll facility and assembling a warehouse staff one hire at a time reminded him of what it was like watching the Mt. Sterling warehouse go up in the late 1980s. In fact, it was Frank who put the very first pallet of product into the now 1.5 million square foot facility.
“It brought back some old memories of what it was like having just a few employees and being a small-time department where everyone wore many different hats,” he said.
Frank says the biggest change between those early days and today is the advancements in warehouse technology. When Frank was first starting out, tracking product in the warehouse was far from the detailed, digital process it would become over the next three decades.
“There wasn’t much organization to it back then,” he said. “You just had to remember where things were located. If you wanted something, you had to go to that part of the building and look around until you found it.”
Eventually, the process of committing to memory shifted to a system of Steno notepads with checklists and tally marks. That system would give way to a more precise system of digital spreadsheets (which still needed to be printed out and taped throughout the warehouse).
“We just tried different things and adapted to what worked best,” he said. “You could try new things and no one said ‘you can’t do that’. If it worked, great. If it didn’t, you figured out a different way to do it.”
In 2024, the part-time-material-handler-turned-manager-turned-director-turned-Canadian-liaison looks to cap a remarkable 38-year career with Dot Foods and begin his much-deserved retirement. The proud father of two and grandfather of three says he plans to spend time traveling and seeing his high school and college-aged grandchildren play sports.
An gifted and accomplished woodworker, Frank also plans to spend more time creating in his woodshop. In addition to crafting beautiful bassinets for each new baby in the family, Frank enjoys building furniture and other remarkable pieces for area charities and fundraisers.
