NewCold fills UK’s biggest deepfreeze

Hunt is on for second UK facility

In the Spring of 2018, NewCold unveiled its newly-completed deep frozen storage and distribution centre which, says the company, is the largest of its kind in the UK and is now, often near to capacity.

At last year’s opening ceremony in Wakefield, customers, dignitaries, staff and well-wishers gathered on the 16.5-acre site to mark the occasion and hear from NewCold’s Country Director, Jon Miles regarding the impressive facts and figures surrounding the new storage and logistics facility.

“Today sees the culmination of 6 years dedicated work,” announced Jon Miles, “and the opening of a food-handling facility which, in terms of size, performance, sustainability and low energy consumption, raises the bar to new heights – until now, not seen in the UK.”

The Wakefield plant handle’s 3,000,000 pallets annually and with a total volume of over 4 million cubic metres, the giant deepfreeze has the capacity to store 143,000 pallets – at a constant, minus 23 degrees. 175 pallets come in and out every hour and just five minutes is required to unload NewCold’s bespoke-designed moving floor trailers.

Featuring some of the most advanced automated technology of its kind anywhere in the world, the NewCold plant is fully automated, and minimal handling maintains product temperature at all times. The operation is driven by Davanti software which has been improved year on year specifically to get optimum use of the automation. Furthermore, the dispatch bays are deep-frozen, whereby many conventional stores are chilled.

“Not only does the facility operate at around 50% of the energy consumed by conventional deep-frozen storage sites,” adds Jon,” but also, given the proximity to the motorway network, 90% of NewCold’s delivery points can be reached and returned from within a driver’s shift. This improves customer service and keeps ‘food miles’ to an absolute minimum.”

NewCold’s founder and CEO Bram Hage commented on the ‘challenges’ met and overcome by the NewCold team during the development and growth of the Wakefield site and referenced similar greenfield projects undertaken by NewCold elsewhere in the world.

“This is the coming together of talented people, both from NewCold and our many supply partners and customers, to formulate a truly global consolidation of skills and recourses in the supply chain.”

“It was a fitting conclusion to a great afternoon”, concluded Jon Miles. “From the start, Denise Jeffrey and Wakefield Council have helped greatly, including 3 years ago with the introduction of many new recruits – 75% of whom, I’m pleased to say are still with us and remain part of our 200-strong team.”

Jon went further, to say that NewCold has so far committed around £100m on build cost alone, and their growth plans over the coming two years will see further investment, including the recruitment of an additional 70 personnel.

“With the success of the Wakefield facility and the increasing demand for a quality temperature-controlled logistics offering, NewCold are actively looking for a site for their second UK facility.”

The NewCold logistics operation expands in line with their core business and so far, comprises 50 tractor units and 80 temperature-controlled trailers – many of which are high-volume double-deckers with auto-loading.