Europe’s largest ‘deep freeze’, on former steelworks land in Corby, is months away from completion.
Automated cold storage specialist, NewCold, started work on the development in late 2020 to meet growing demand from the food manufacturing sector.
Ross Hunter, supply chain director, explains: “The company already has a strong demand for its services at its Wakefield site 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.”
When fully operational the site will employ more than 250 people, but industry-leading automation will play a key part in the facility’s operation for NewCold, which has headquarters in the Netherlands and operates from fourteen locations on three continents.
Ross Hunter adds: “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.”
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.
“Furthermore,” says Ross hunter, “a focus on sustainability at both the Wakefield and Corby sites, our unique cold store design – which uses around 50 per cent 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.”
The Corby operation will enable NewCold to offer their services to customers for whom Wakefield may not be geographically well-situated or who have run out of space.
NewCold have 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,” concludes Ross, “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.”
