Manufacturing demand for frozen and convenient foods is supporting a $200 million expansion of NewCold’s automated cold-storage operations in Truganina, Victoria, with the company adding 80,000 pallet positions to its existing facility.
NewCold is opening its expanded freezer in Truganina today, 16 September, adding 80,000 pallet positions and taking the site’s capacity to 180,000 pallet positions. The company’s two Truganina facilities now have a combined capacity of 405,000 pallet positions across frozen, chilled and ambient storage.
The 10,453-square-metre facility stands 40 metres high and operates at minus 23 degrees Celsius. It stores products for major food manufacturers including McCain, Peters and Patties.
NewCold founder and CEO Bram Hage said the additional capacity reflects growth from food manufacturers as demand for frozen and convenient food increases.
“When we came to Australia in 2017, we saw an opportunity to bring a very different approach to cold storage. We started here with McCain and Peters and we’ve grown alongside our customers ever since,” Mr Hage said.
CSIRO forecasts Australian consumption of prepared and frozen packaged meals to reach $3.7 billion by 2030. NewCold said the growth is contributing to increased requirements for storage and distribution capacity.
McCain’s Ross Fallon said the expansion would support the company’s ability to respond to demand for frozen products.
“Australians are buying more frozen food, from fries and ready-made meals to pizza, vegetables and snacks and that means more product needs to be stored and moved through the cold chain,” Mr Fallon said.
The facility uses automated stacker cranes, shuttles and conveyors to move pallets through its high-bay storage system, with each pallet digitally checked and assigned a destination.
Mr Hage said automation was also intended to reduce product handling and support warehouse efficiency.
“People often think automation is just about speed but it’s also about protecting the product,” he said. “The less it’s handled, the safer the food, the lower the risk of damage and the more efficient the whole process becomes.”
Peters Ice Cream CEO Emma-Jane Collins said additional capacity would provide greater ability to support demand for frozen products across Australia.
“For a business supplying frozen products across Australia, maintaining temperature and having product where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, is critical,” Collins said.
NewCold said its vertically configured warehouse design also reduces the refrigerated footprint, with the company reporting that it can use around 50 per cent less energy than a conventional cold store.
The company entered Australia in 2017 and said the country became the starting point for its global relationship with McCain, which is now its largest customer worldwide. NewCold currently operates 26 automated warehouses across three continents, with combined capacity of more than two million pallet positions.
