NewCold expands into Australia with frozen and chilled coldstores

Temperature-controlled company NewCold Advanced Cold Logistics, which opened its first UK automated frozen food coldstore in 2015, is now building two new warehouses in Australia – including a chilled one for the first time.

One of the sites in Truganina, near Melbourne, for frozen goods, will store products for new customer, McCain Foods, Australia along with Peters Ice Cream Australia, part of the Froneri group.

The 10-year deal, starting in July this year, is part of the food group’s “ongoing effort to improve supply chain efficiencies to help customers meet consumer demands”.

The site, being built by storage equipment manufacturer Dematic, will consist of an integrated system combining automated pallet handling systems using in-house warehouse and control software developed in-house by NewCold.

“The storage and handling of McCain’s frozen products in the new automated facility will give us a more stable temperature regime and highly accurate stock control,” said McCain Foods ANZ Supply Chain Director Taso Kourou.

The other site, also based in Truganina, will handle chilled and ambient product for dairy company Fonterra Australia which is consolidating its distribution network and six warehouses into the one facility. Opening in July, the 12-storey site will be capable of holding up to 110,000 pallets.

Fonterra Australia Managing Director, René Dedoncker, said:

“The first of its kind in Australia, the facility is highly automated and, because of its technology, we can be more agile and responsive to our customers’ needs, deliver smaller and more frequent orders and importantly, improve our service delivery.”

NewCold is able to handle major automated coldstore projects worldwide having built up experience in Europe where it now has sites in France, Germany and Poland as well as the highly automated, 40m high cold storage plant in Wakefield, UK.

The phase one of the Wakefield warehouse had been completed and phase 2 – to expand the site –  will take place next year.

Jon Miles, NewCold UK’s Country Manager, said:

“We have years and years of experience in automation and that gives us the edge over someone who is building an automated warehouse for the first time.”

The new venture in Australia underlines the fact that NewCold is a “truly international temperature-controlled business”, adds Miles.