People have to eat, which is one reason Universal Companies continues to grow.

The cold storage company at 16th and Pioneers Boulevard is embarking on its second expansion in a little more than a year.

Owner John Jacobson said the company is in the midst of a nearly $7 million project that will add more than 72,000 square feet of cold storage space.

The addition on the west side of the building will have 15,000 pallet positions, 14 new loading dock doors and space to hold around 700 semi-truck loads of products, Jacobson said.

It will bring the overall cold storage space at the site to nearly 400,000 square feet.

"We keep running out of room," he said.

Jacobson said the previous expansion, which opened in May 2008, was expected to provide enough space for a year or more, but it filled up in three months.

"With all the opportunities, we thought we'd go ahead and make the investment," he said.

Jacobson said he's hoping to pursue some new business with the expansion, which is scheduled to be complete by Oct.1, but he might wind up getting enough extra business from current customers, which include some of the largest meat producers in the country, to fill up the space.

The recession is having little effect on Universal, he said, because, whether food companies are selling meat or not, they still have to have some place to store it.

"I'm not saying we're recession-proof," Jacobson said, "but we might be more recession-resistant than a lot of other businesses."

In addition to cold storage, Universal also does "tempering" - essentially defrosting meat to a certain temperature before it's shipped.

That portion of the business has helped fuel the company's growth, especially its work force.

Two years ago, the company had fewer than 30 employees. Now it has 65, and that number could grow to anywhere from 70 to 90, Jacobson said, depending on how much additional work and what kind of work the expansion brings.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.