Corby, UK: NewCold’s new site, soon to be Europe’s largest ‘deep freeze’, is due to open within months.
The cold store, built on former steelworks land in Corby, will meet growing demand from the food manufacturing sector, says Ross Hunter, supply chain director, NewCold.
“The company already has a strong demand for its services at its Wakefield site (pictured above) and sees Corby as a prime location in the logistics ‘golden triangle’, with proximity to frozen distribution centres of large retail and food service customers. This will enable NewCold to help our customers reduce food miles and cut costs,” he said.
“Since opening our first UK site in Wakefield seven years ago, we have seen an increase in demand for our warehouse and transport services and although the Wakefield facility is the largest of its kind in the country, handling 4,000,000 pallets annually and storing 143,000 at any given time, demand has outstripped supply,” Hunter said.
“It meant a decision to establish another facility further south in the United Kingdom came easily for the company, which promises to bring additional benefits for customers, including frozen food manufacturers and importers,” Hunter said.
“A focus on sustainability at both the Wakefield and Corby sites, our unique cold store design – which uses around 50% less energy than conventional stores – coupled with our ability to reduce food miles by using high-volume trailers, will greatly reduce CO2 emissions and energy use,” he said.
The Corby operation will enable NewCold to offer services to customers for whom Wakefield may not be geographically well-situated or who have run out of space.
NewCold has been in talks with high volume potential customers, to add to an impressive list of Wakefield customers, associated with global brands. Each will benefit from NewCold’s sustainable transport, storage and WMS solutions, including automatic handling equipment to reduce loading times, while retaining product integrity.
“The decision to build a second facility has been driven by an increasing wide-scale demand for storage and handling, while the number of deep-frozen storage facilities has reduced. This has seen cold stores at capacity during certain times over the last two years and the trend appears to be continuing, so we feel this is the right time to invest,” Hunter said.
In 2015 NewCold made its first foray into the UK, opening an automated, 40m-high cold store store on a green field site in Wakefield, Yorkshire. NewCold is headquartered in the Netherlands and operates from fourteen sites.
