August 2026 Wholesale Trade new business activity in Florida

Florida stocks a market far bigger than itself, and the buildings that hold the goods keep going up. Coca-Cola Beverages Florida just opened an $84 million distribution center in Orlando that handles about 34 million cases a year, Chick-fil-A Supply is putting more than $150 million into a Winter Haven logistics center, a new cement terminal at Port Tampa Bay opened with silos holding nearly 100,000 tons, and a container service from Shanghai now calls at Port Everglades. Wholesale distributors fill and empty every one of those buildings, and new ones are registering with the state to take a share of the freight.

Every newly registered wholesale business draws on a predictable set of local firms. A new distributor needs warehouse or flex space, racking and forklifts, a state permit for the goods it moves, freight and drayage, cold storage for perishables, inventory and order software, product liability and cargo insurance, and a customs broker or freight forwarder for anything coming through a port. That is why new formations tend to cluster along the interstate corridors and around the seaports, where the goods already move.

The counts below show where new wholesale trade businesses are registering, by region, over the last 30, 90, and 365 days. Under them is the recent news distributors are watching, from new distribution centers to port terminal openings, with the specific businesses each one creates work for. The state permits and the official pages live at the bottom, in Wholesale Trade Resources.

New developments wholesale owners are watching right now, with the real date of each and the specific businesses it creates work for. This month runs from food and beverage distribution on the I-4 corridor to cement and aggregate terminals on the Gulf Coast, a vehicle distribution hub on the First Coast, a 1.1 million square foot cold-storage plan on the Treasure Coast, and a new direct container service from Asia into the Gold Coast, plus a state trade mission that booked export sales for 10 Florida firms.

• Central Florida (I-4 Corridor & Space Coast)· announced 2026-06-17

  Coke Florida opens an $84 million Orlando distribution center

  Coca-Cola Beverages Florida celebrated the grand opening of its new Orlando Distribution Center at 3095 Eunice Avenue. The $84 million building runs 180,000 square feet on a five-acre site, has 29 inbound and outbound docks, and uses automated warehouse technology to handle about 34 million cases a year. From there the company supplies roughly 15 counties, including Orlando, Ocala, Daytona, Brevard, and Fort Pierce. The release itself prints no date. The company's own press release index dates it June 17, 2026, which is the date shown here. A beverage distribution hub this size buys from a long list of local firms: pallet and case suppliers, forklift and racking dealers, refrigeration and dock-equipment service, route trucking and trailer repair, packaging and shrink-wrap suppliers, and warehouse staffing. Smaller beverage and snack wholesalers also form around a hub like this to serve the accounts the big houses do not carry. It anchors beverage supply for about 15 Central Florida counties and supports a workforce of nearly 1,000 Coke Florida associates across the region.

  Source: Coca-Cola Beverages Florida

• Central Florida (I-4 Corridor & Space Coast)· reported 2026-06-19

  Chick-fil-A Supply plans a $150 million logistics center in Winter Haven

  Polk County's economic development council reports that Chick-fil-A Supply has announced plans to build a 244,000 square foot logistics operations center in the Central Florida Integrated Logistics Park in Winter Haven. The project carries more than $150 million in capital investment and about 180 new jobs in Polk County. The center will support restaurant operations through warehousing, inventory management, and delivery of ingredients and supplies to franchise locations across the region. A foodservice distribution center pulls in cold-storage contractors, refrigerated trucking and trailer leasing, pallet and reusable-container suppliers, food-grade sanitation crews, dock levelers and material-handling dealers, and lot-tracking software. Produce, protein, and specialty food wholesalers also cluster near a hub like this to fill the gaps a single-brand network does not carry. It adds about 180 jobs in Polk County and deepens the I-4 corridor as the food-distribution spine between Tampa and Orlando.

  Source: Central Florida Development Council

• Central Florida (I-4 Corridor & Space Coast)· reported 2026-05-06

  A Sanford warehouse opens fully leased to a game distributor and a flavor maker

  A new industrial building at 2551 McCracken Road in Sanford, developed by HLI Partners, opened fully leased. The building runs more than 116,000 square feet. Its tenants are PHD Games, described as the largest gaming distributor in the South, carrying trading card games, miniatures, board games, dice, and gaming supplies, and Native Vanilla, a maker of extracts and flavors serving retail, industrial, and private label customers. PHD Games is retaining 53 jobs and adding at least 10 more on a $250,000 investment, and Native Vanilla plans 20 new jobs on a $1.25 million investment. A hobby and specialty-goods distributor needs pick-and-pack labor, small-parcel and LTL freight, corrugated and mailer suppliers, barcode and inventory systems, product liability and cargo insurance, and shelving and conveyor installers. A building that leases out before it opens is also a signal to new wholesalers that flex and warehouse space in the market is scarce and worth locking early. It puts an empty Seminole County building straight to work and adds 30 new jobs between the two tenants.

  Source: Orlando Economic Partnership

• Northeast Florida (First Coast)· 2026-04-22

  Southeast Toyota opens a bigger vehicle processing plant at JAXPORT

  Southeast Toyota Distributors dedicated a new vehicle processing facility at JAXPORT's Blount Island Marine Terminal. The site runs more than 380,000 square feet across seven buildings on 88 acres and represents a $170 million combined economic investment. It can process about 4,000 vehicles a week and supports more than 400 full-time jobs, 95% of them hired locally. The distributor serves 178 Toyota dealers across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. A vehicle distribution hub feeds a long list of wholesale firms: parts and accessory distributors, glass and trim suppliers, protective film and packaging vendors, detailing and reconditioning supply houses, car haulers and drayage carriers, and warehouse equipment dealers. New wholesalers form to supply the goods that move through a hub on this scale. It keeps a five-state vehicle distribution hub in Jacksonville and holds more than 400 full-time jobs on the First Coast.

  Source: Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT)

• Tampa Bay (Gulf Coast)· 2026-06-09

  SESCO opens a cement terminal at Port Tampa Bay

  SESCO Cement celebrated the opening of its new cement import terminal at Port Redwing at Port Tampa Bay. The terminal has storage silos with nearly 100,000 tons of capacity, and the port says that upon full build-out it will be the largest cement terminal in Florida. The facility features the largest wheel-mounted cement ship unloader in operation, and SESCO expects to move cement, supplementary cementitious materials, and aggregates through it. A cement import terminal is upstream of every building-materials wholesaler in the region. Bulk cement haulers, silo and pneumatic trailer dealers, ready-mix and precast producers, masonry and block suppliers, and admixture and additive distributors all gain steadier supply close to home. New building-material wholesalers tend to form where the material lands. More cement moving through a Florida deepwater port steadies building-material supply and costs across the Gulf Coast.

  Source: Port Tampa Bay

• Tampa Bay (Gulf Coast)· 2026-05-28

  Cemex finishes a $36 million aggregates terminal expansion at Port Tampa Bay

  Cemex and Port Tampa Bay completed a $36 million expansion of the Cemex aggregates terminal, funded by a $29 million Cemex investment and a $7 million Florida Department of Transportation grant. A new conveying system moves 5,000 tons of material an hour from ship to storage, and Cemex expects the terminal to handle about 1.5 million tons of aggregates a year. The aggregates arrive from Newfoundland, Canada, and go into concrete, asphalt, and construction projects across the region. Aggregates are the raw stock behind concrete, asphalt, and masonry. A bigger local terminal helps ready-mix and precast producers, block and masonry suppliers, dump and bulk trucking firms, and paving-material distributors keep stock without waiting on a long haul. New building-material wholesalers can start closer to their supply. It gives Florida builders a steadier aggregate supply through a deepwater port, which keeps roads, schools, hospitals, and housing on schedule.

  Source: Port Tampa Bay

• Southwest Florida· 2026-05-28

  Curry Commerce Center opens at Babcock Ranch with 255,000 sq ft of flex space

  Babcock Ranch held the grand opening of Curry Commerce Center on Thursday, May 28, 2026. It is a 255,000 square foot, eight-building commercial flex and light industrial complex near State Road 31, built for office, showroom, warehouse, service, distribution, trade, and light manufacturing users. The developer is offering up to one year of free rent on the first 10 new leases, and the complex is aimed at businesses serving Charlotte and Lee counties. Small wholesale distributors rarely start in a single-tenant warehouse. They start in flex bays like these, with a showroom in front and racking in back. A complex this size opens room for building-material, plumbing and electrical supply, restaurant-equipment, and janitorial and packaging distributors, plus the forklift dealers, racking installers, and freight brokers that serve them. It adds warehouse and showroom space in a fast-growing part of Southwest Florida and gives small distributors a place to set up between Charlotte and Lee counties.

  Source: Babcock Ranch

• Southeast Florida (Gold Coast, Treasure Coast & Keys)· announced 2026-07-24

  A new direct Asia container service starts calling Port Everglades

  Port Everglades announced the MSC Empire Service, a new Mediterranean Shipping Company container service linking the port directly with the Far East. The inaugural call was on July 17, 2026. The rotation covers Shanghai and Ningbo in China, Busan in South Korea, Rodman in Panama, and Norfolk, Virginia, with Port Everglades as the last U.S. call before the ships return to Shanghai. The vessels carry about 8,800 twenty-foot equivalent units, and the port now runs 26 cargo container services. A direct service to Asia cuts a transshipment leg out of an importer's supply chain, which matters most to small wholesalers buying containers of housewares, electronics, apparel, furniture, and building products. It also creates work for customs brokers, freight forwarders, drayage carriers, warehouse and cross-dock operators, and cargo insurance agents in Broward County. It restores a direct Florida link to Asian manufacturing and keeps import volume, and the jobs behind it, on the Gold Coast instead of another state.

  Source: Port Everglades

• Southeast Florida (Gold Coast, Treasure Coast & Keys)· reported 2026-06-05

  Port Everglades reports $48.3 billion in economic activity

  Port Everglades reported that it generated $48.3 billion in economic activity in fiscal year 2025 and supports approximately 300,000 jobs throughout Florida. The port moved 1.167 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containerized cargo in the same year. The study was done by maritime industry analyst Martin Associates and covered October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. Container volume on this scale is the demand base under a whole layer of wholesale businesses: customs brokers and freight forwarders, drayage and warehouse operators, importers of food, furniture, and consumer goods, and the packaging, palletizing, and inspection firms that handle a container after it lands. The port carries roughly 300,000 Florida jobs and moves the imported goods that stock the state's stores, restaurants, and job sites.

  Source: Port Everglades

• Southeast Florida (Gold Coast, Treasure Coast & Keys)· reported 2026-05-04

  Fort Pierce staff back a 1.1 million sq ft refrigerated warehouse

  City of Fort Pierce planning staff recommended that the City Commission approve a major site plan amendment for 1,070,080 square feet of refrigerated warehouse and office building on 69.19 acres at 2300 S. Kings Highway, west of Interstate 95 on what the city calls the Kings Highway Jobs Corridor. The owner and applicant are Scannell Properties and Jeff Iravani, Inc., and the city files the project as the Amazon Distribution Center. Applicant-supplied documents put it at about 745 jobs. The city technical review committee reviewed the plan and all departments supported it. Cold storage on this scale is wholesale food infrastructure. It creates work for refrigeration and ammonia-system contractors, racking and conveyor installers, refrigerated trucking and trailer leasing, pallet and reusable-container suppliers, food-grade sanitation crews, and freight brokers. Produce, protein, and frozen-goods distributors also tend to form near cold capacity, because renting space in someone else's freezer is what lets a small distributor start. It adds large-scale cold storage on the Treasure Coast, which shortens the haul for Florida growers and shippers moving perishable goods.

  Source: City of Fort Pierce, Planning Department

• Statewide· reported 2026-05-18

  A state trade mission books $49 million in export sales for 10 Florida firms

  SelectFlorida, the state international trade and economic development organization, reported more than $49 million in export sales following an export sales mission to Honduras and El Salvador. Ten Florida companies took part, in defense, dietary supplements and vitamins, auto parts, telecommunications services, training simulation equipment, and pharmaceuticals. The mission generated 93 business leads for the firms that went, and port representatives from Tampa Bay and Everglades joined. Export selling is a wholesale business. A distributor that starts shipping abroad needs a freight forwarder, an export documentation service, cargo insurance, trade financing, and a customs broker at the destination, and it usually needs bigger inventory to cover longer lead times. The state trade grants listed in the resources below cover part of that first step. It puts Florida-made and Florida-distributed goods into new markets and keeps the trade income, and the warehouse jobs behind it, in the state.

  Source: SelectFlorida

• We count each business by the date it registered with the state, so this shows new business formation, not the current number of wholesalers.
• State records post about 2 weeks behind, so the last week or two will keep rising as more filings arrive.
• Wholesale trade here covers four groups: durable goods, nondurable goods, building materials, and food and beverage. Warehouse clubs and other membership retail stores are counted as retail, not wholesale.
• Permits come from the agency that regulates the goods being moved, so a food distributor is permitted by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and a drug or beverage distributor by DBPR.
• Counts cover active Florida businesses and update daily.

Statewide license source: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, food establishment permits.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the most new wholesale businesses forming in Florida?

This report ranks every Florida region by new wholesale trade businesses and shows if activity is heating up or slowing down.

Does a Florida wholesaler need a license?

It depends on the goods. A food warehouse or food processing plant needs a food permit from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. A beer, wine, liquor, or tobacco distributor is licensed by DBPR. A prescription drug wholesale distributor or third party logistics provider needs a DBPR drugs and devices permit. Almost every wholesaler also gets an Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax from the Department of Revenue.

What is an Annual Resale Certificate?

It is the Department of Revenue document that lets a business buy or rent property or services tax free when the property or service is resold or re-rented. It is what separates a wholesale purchase from a retail one.

Where does this data come from?

The formation counts come from official Florida business-registration records. We pull every new filing, sort it by industry and region, and update daily. We count a business by the date it registered with the state. Permits come from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and from Florida DBPR.

Can I see the actual businesses?

Yes. You get the real filings, with business names, addresses, and officers, free for 7 days, with no credit card required. Start a free 7 day trial to see them.

The standing resources that govern Florida wholesale distributors, starting with the statewide permits and associations, then the local body for each region. This is the rulebook, not the news. Check it to see the resources a new distributor uses, or send a new distributor here.