Imperial Brown, a leading manufacturer of custom walk-in coolers and freezers, is beginning production at its fourth manufacturing plant, located in Tucson, Arizona. Imperial Brown also operates a plant in Salisbury.

The Tucson factory is the company’s fourth plant and its first greenfield project. With 102,000 square feet under roof, the factory will reduce shipping costs and lead time for delivery of walk-in coolers and freezers for clients in the Southwestern U.S., including the states of Arizona, southern California, Nevada, New Mexico, and portions of Utah and Colorado.

The fourth location means that Imperial Brown has two-thirds of the U.S. population within a 500-mile radius of its plants, according to Justin L. Sandall, President & CEO. “With rising freight costs and a very bulky product, this level of distributed manufacturing is a strategic advantage for the company’s clients, many of whom have very large national footprints and growth plans,” he said.

Other factories are located in Gresham, Oregon and Prague, Oklahoma.

The new factory will initially employ 65 and has an expected economic impact of $225 million over the next 10 years.

Imperial Brown has experienced constant growth since the merger of the West Coast and East Coast manufacturing facilities 11 years ago. In 2012, Imperial Manufacturing of Portland, Oregon, acquired W.A. Brown & Son of Salisbury, and merged the two companies into Imperial Brown.