When David Charles bought CORE X PERFORMANCE in Salt Lake City in 2020, the facility was moving from a 4,500-pallet operation into a building with triple the capacity. Today, Charles has built a consistently profitable operation through disciplined financial management and customer-focused solutions. Now, he’s bringing that approach to CORE X PREMIER in Burleson, Texas, part of the busy Dallas-Fort Worth cold storage market.
Building Profitability Through Creative Solutions
Charles didn’t start his career dreaming about cold storage. Coming from a private equity background—he previously brought Sonic Drive-Ins to Utah and Idaho—he approaches facilities as platforms for growth. What kept him in the industry wasn’t the infrastructure, but the opportunity to solve complex problems for customers.
At CORE X PERFORMANCE, that meant rethinking what a cold storage provider could offer. Rather than simply storing finished goods, the facility developed integrated logistics solutions that transformed how customers operated their businesses.
One food manufacturer producing bacon products faced a common constraint: their production facility had to house both incoming bulk ingredients and finished goods, limiting their production line capacity. They had the sales to support growth, but expanding would require building an entirely new facility—a significant capital investment in an already expensive market.
Charles and his team saw a different solution. By storing the bulk product at CORE X PERFORMANCE and implementing a precise shuttling schedule that kept production lines consistently fed, they freed up the manufacturer’s entire storage footprint for additional production lines. The result: substantial production growth without the cost of new construction.
“They don’t have to worry about the logistics or anything,” Charles explains. “We just keep them fed. All they worry about is production.”
What Makes CORE X PERFORMANCE Work
CORE X PERFORMANCE’s profitability stems from disciplined financial management combined with service flexibility. Charles maintains transparency with his team about performance metrics—what defines success and what signals problems. But those numbers serve customer solutions, not the other way around.
“We’re accountable to the numbers, accountable to each other, and accountable to our customers,” Charles notes. “Sometimes things happen with their product. When that’s the case, it’s being accountable for that to our customers.”
The facility also invests in automation technologies that let the team handle more volume without adding staff. That keeps costs competitive while service quality stays high.
Translating Strategy to the DFW Market
The Dallas-Fort Worth cold storage market presents different challenges than Salt Lake City. With more competition and different customer needs, Charles is focused on understanding what will differentiate CORE X PREMIER.
What he found so far: a strong foundation built by Ron Buford, who established a customer-first culture focused on service and relationship. Charles plans to maintain that foundation while exploring what additional solutions might differentiate CORE X PREMIER in a crowded market.
“We’ve got to think outside the box,” Charles says. “What can we do to offer a need that our competitors are not?”
That might mean expanding logistics capabilities, as it did in Salt Lake City. The thinking illustrates Charles’s approach: understand customer needs, then determine what solutions address those needs.
The strategy also includes geographic expansion. While the immediate DFW area faces capacity oversupply, outlying regions around Dallas-Fort Worth remain underserved. Reaching those markets requires creative transportation solutions to offset the added distance, but the opportunity exists for providers willing to approach the challenge strategically.
The CORE X Advantage in Competitive Markets
Charles points to a specific competitive advantage when explaining what differentiates CORE X from larger national providers: the ability to customize solutions rather than requiring customers to adapt their operations to fit standardized offerings.
“With our larger competitors, there are no options for customized solutions,” Charles explains. “We can think outside of the box. We can make changes to accommodate their business instead of them changing their business to accommodate us.”
That flexibility comes from CORE X’s structure—large enough to provide national presence and network capabilities, small enough to maintain decision-making authority at the facility level. Regional operators can respond to specific market needs without navigating layers of corporate approval.
For the bacon manufacturer in Salt Lake City, that meant developing an integrated logistics program tailored to their production schedule. For other customers, it might mean different solutions entirely. The commonality isn’t the specific service offering, but the willingness to understand customer constraints and develop approaches that address them.
Looking Ahead at CORE X PREMIER
Charles is focused on building on the foundation Buford established at CORE X PREMIER. The existing team’s customer-first approach provides a solid base for the next phase of growth.
The immediate focus: understanding the current customer base deeply, identifying what additional value CORE X PREMIER can provide, and exploring underserved markets in the broader DFW region. Charles says. “I’m confident in the team that’s there, and I’m confident that we can find solutions.”
For food manufacturers and distributors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area seeking partners who will adapt to their needs rather than forcing them into predetermined boxes, that confidence represents an opportunity worth exploring.
Ready to discuss customized cold storage solutions for your DFW operation? Contact CORE X PREMIER to learn how regional expertise and network capabilities can support your business growth.