The International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW), a core partner of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), has released the association’s annual Global Top 25 List of its largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics members. Accompanying the IARW Global Top 25 is the IARW North American Top 25 List and a list of the largest operators in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Europe. The lists are determined by total capacity of temperature-controlled space in IARW membership.
IARW members currently own or operate 6.3 billion cubic feet (178.4 million cubic meters). A total capacity of 884 million cubic feet was added to the Global Top 25 since the publication of the 2019 lists, due in most part to frequent mergers and acquisitions activity. This does not suggest the general industry grew at this pace.
"Consolidation continues to play a major role in the growth of the largest players in the cold storage industry," said IARW President & CEO Matthew Ott, CMP, CAE. "Members are continuing to expand and acquire other companies in developed markets, but we have also seen growth in emerging and developing markets where cold chain services are most needed."
The Global Top 25 currently operates 5.13 billion cubic feet (145 million cubic meters). The North American Top 25 operates 3.86 billion cubic feet (109 million cubic meters). The European Top 10 operates 807.9 million cubic feet (22.9 million cubic meters). The Latin American Top 10 operates 339 million cubic feet (9.5 million cubic meters).
Regions worldwide reported increased capacity and several new companies joined IARW in the past year. Since 2019’s lists were published, the following changes occurred:
- Global Top 25 capacity increased by 884 million cubic feet
- North America Top 25 capacity increased by 686 million cubic feet
- Latin America Top 10 capacity increased by 97 million cubic feet
- Europe Top 10 capacity increased by 16.6 million cubic feet
GCCA membership includes more than 1,300 temperature-controlled facilities and members in over 80 countries. Warehouse members offer a range of logistics solutions, including storage, transportation, processing, blast freezing, exports, and more. A complete listing of all warehouse members can be found in the Global Cold Chain Directory, which is available for free online. For more information, visit: https://www.gcca.org/directory/all.
View the lists of the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics providers.