The story

TransCold’s vision is to provide the best in distribution, storage and warehousing with customer and service as the utmost priority. TransCold provides access to the most recognized and popular ice cream brands and frozen goods in the world. We offer quality, consistent service & the best product variety around to our customers from national grocers, to local convenient stores, corporate events and everything in between.

TransCold Distribution also offers a variety of 3PL services, including storage and warehousing consolidation services at our first class facilities for both frozen and dry goods. With multiple locations in BC, Alberta, Washington State, Oregon, & Southern California, we have the logistical reach to supply all regions across the West Coast of North America.

About TransCold transportation & distribution

Our Mission

Provide best in class service to all customers that need our products and services.

Expand on what we offer all customers and exceed customers’ expectations on portfolio, innovation and service.

Treat customers with utmost importance every day and in turn treat each other the same.

TransCold's Executive Team

Our Values

"After 33 years in the business, I’ve come to understand the needs of my customers better than most out there. Our mission here at TransCold is pretty simple, to continue to be leaders in frozen food distribution across North America. We do this by placing a considerable amount of importance on forging strong supplier partnerships as well as long lasting relationships with our customers. Large or small, local or national, we pride ourselves in building trust and reliability in each and every one of our customers."
John Coughlan, TransCold founder
John Coughlan
Founder & CEO

Our values sit at the heart of our business and what we want TransCold to stand for:

  • Integrity & Professionalism
  • Collaboration with Customers, Vendors and our Team
  • Family
  • Resourcefulness
  • Loyalty
  • Work Life Balance

TransCold Leadership Team

John Coughlan, TransCold Distribution

John Coughlan

Founder & CEO

Melissa Leung, TransCold Distribution

Melissa Leung

President

Curtis Wright, TransCold Distribution

Curtis Wright

Director

Emelda Thompson, TransCold Distribution

Emelda Thompson

Director of Human Resources

Dennis Chow, TransCold Distribution

Dennis Chow

Director of IT

Janine Oss, TransCold Distribution

Janine Oss

Marketing & Communications Manager

Lyndia Tjondrosetio, TransCold Distribution

Lindya Tjondrosetio

Controller, Canada

Marco Felicella, TransCold Distribution

Marco Felicella

Director of Sales, Canada

Rob Tweedie, TransCold Director of Operations

Rob Tweedie

Director of Operations, Canada

Teri Hanson, TransCold Distribution

Teri Hanson

Controller, USA

Henry Heatherly, TransCold Director of Operations

Henry (Hank) Heatherly

Director of Operations, USA

The TransCold Archive

A lot successful people in the world of business will tell you they grew from small beginnings.  Our founder John Coughlan is no exception to the rule. His history with the cold stuff goes back many years, but it all started after he moved to Canada from Limerick, Ireland and purchased a humble Dickie Dee franchise with only 8 ice cream tricycles. 

Years later,  Unilever turned to John when they needed someone in Western Canada based on the reputation for excellence he had built so John took that opportunity and built it into an empire. Since launching in 2002, TransCold has continually expanded its territory and grown over 1,500% (and counting).

Marco Felicella, TransCold Distribution Director of Sales Marco Felicella was appointed Director of Sales for Canada. Read the press release.

Marco has over 20 years of experience within the packaged goods industry, with Pepsi and Unilever ice cream brands. With his extensive experience, he will be providing strategic sales leadership to our team and leading the execution of vendor initiatives.

Melissa Leung, President Melissa Leung was appointed President, having been with TCD since our inception in 2002 and prior to that, Unilever. Under Leung’s leadership as Vice President, TransCold has had tremendous year over year growth in sales and built a strong operations team.  

Read the press release.

Southern California expansion We opened our first Southern California warehouse in Chino, beginning with seven routes. Our second location followed just a few months later in National City and our third in Palm Springs 18 months later.

Girls enjoying Island Farms ice cream cones Island Farms joined our product portfolio through an Agropur/Coast Mountain Dairy acquisition and allowed us to bolster our scoop shop offering. This was the beginning of years of massive product expansion, bringing us up to more than 40 vendors as of 2019. 

Sara's Ice Cream Cake - Black Raspberry Cheesecake TransCold acquired Bendick Ice Cream Factory, the manufacturer of Sara’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Cakes and white label products. Sara’s Ice Cream Cakes can be found at multiple national grocery stores.

TransCold in the Pacific Northwest TransCold goes international! At this time, we expanded into the USA, beginning with Washington and Oregon. Our American head office is now based in Kent, WA.

TransCold Distribution in Alberta In 2007, we acquired a southern Alberta distributor, expanding our logistical network in Canada.

Freezer under construction in Delta Our first frozen warehouse was built in Delta, BC!

TransCold Distribution logo TransCold was founded by John Coughlan as Western Canada’s Master Distributor of Unilever frozen goods

Unilever ice cream brands John joined Unilever as District Manager for British Columbia.

The ice cream man John launched “The Ice Cream Man,” and distributed wholesale over a large territory centered around Kingston, ON.

Dickie Dee Ice Cream Tricycle John moved his franchise to Kingston and expands to 25 bikes.

Johns supermarket in Limerick, Ireland John Coughlan began in the ice cream industry with a Dickie Dee Ice Cream franchise with 8 bikes in southern Ottawa shortly after arriving in Canada. Prior to immigrating, John opened a small grocery store in Ireland.