NewCold will officially open a $200 million freezer expansion in Australia on 16 September, adding 80,000 pallet positions to its automated cold-storage operations. The expansion takes the facility to 180,000 pallet positions, while NewCold’s two Truganina facilities now provide a combined 405,000 pallet positions across frozen, chilled and ambient storage.
The new freezer is 40 metres (131 ft) high, covers 10,453 square metres (112,515 sq ft) and operates at minus 23 degrees Celsius (minus 9.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The automated high-bay facility stores food for manufacturers including McCain, Peters and Patties.
Every incoming pallet undergoes automated checks before being scanned, assigned a destination and moved through the high-bay using automated stacker cranes, shuttles and conveyors. Overnight, order data and predictive analytics are used to reposition pallets for retrieval through 21 loading docks. The system rejects pallets that are too heavy, too tall or overhanging.
McCain representative Ross Fallon said the automation and factory connectivity provide “highly accurate stock control, consistent temperature management and less manual handling of our products.” Peters Ice Cream CEO Emma-Jane Collins said the additional capacity gives the company “greater ability to support growing demand.”
NewCold says the 40-metre-high design stores pallets vertically, concentrating more product within a smaller refrigerated footprint. “Cold storage is incredibly energy intensive. By going higher and storing more product within a smaller refrigerated footprint, we can use around 50% less energy/power than a conventional cold store.”
“People often think automation is just about speed but it’s also about protecting the product. Once a pallet enters the high-bay, the system does almost everything itself, there’s very little human intervention,” said NewCold founder and CEO Bram Hage. NewCold currently commissions five to seven new frozen warehouses annually and plans to be carbon neutral by 2040.
