United States Cold Storage became a wholly owned subsidiary of United Kingdom and Hong Kong based Swire in 1982. Swire was founded in the United Kingdom in 1816 and now has substantial investments in refrigerated warehousing, shipping, road transport, soft drink manufacturing, aviation, property development and trading in the United States, Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom.

Outside the United States, Swire Cold Storage is the largest provider of refrigerated warehousing in Australia. Swire Cold Storage also operates a major modern cold storage facility in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) as well as one in Sri Lanka doing business as Finlay Cold Storage. In 2008, Guangdong Swire Cold Chain Logistics CO. LTD. was established in China as the initial phase of a development plan to serve the Chinese frozen and refrigerated food industry. In addition to these public warehousing interests, the Swire Group also owns a number of dedicated facilities for use by subsidiary companies.

Swire today employs more than 125,000 people worldwide, but despite its diverse and international focus, John Swire & Sons is still very much a family company: its current Honorary and Life Presidents are great-great-grandsons of the founder, John Swire of Liverpool.