The UK cold chain logistics market size was valued at $4.55 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach $24.37 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 23.6% from 2019 to 2026. The meat, fish, and sea food segment accounted for the highest share in 2018 and is anticipated to exhibit remarkable growth rate during the forecast period.
Adoption of cold chain logistics plays a crucial role in avoiding the wastage of the temperature sensitive goods and commodities, providing lucrative prices to the farmers. In the pharmaceutical industry, cold chain logistics solutions increase the effectiveness of drugs throughout the supply chain to end user. The UK cold chain logistics market trends are anticipated to experience significant growth during the forecast period.
The freezing solutions required to maintain the quality and shelf life of products, such as fresh agricultural produce, seafood, frozen food, photographic films, chemicals, and pharmaceutical drugs is referred to as cold chain logistics. Adoption of cold chain is very essential to extend the period of marketing, avoid over capacity, reduce transport bottlenecks during peak period, and maintain quality of products. In addition, the utilization of temperature-controlled warehouses for storage and cold insulated transport vehicles for product distribution is involved in the UK cold chain logistics market. Moreover, this solution is widely used to transport and store fruits, vegetables, meat, beef, medicines, and drugs. The market uses transportation modes such refrigerated trucks, refrigerated railcars, refrigerated cargo, and air cargo.
Factors such as increase in number of refrigerated warehouses and development of the pharmaceutical sector are expected to drive the growth of the UK cold chain logistics market. However, factors such as lack of standardization pertaining to operating procedures, security, temperature, pest control, and others and high operational cost restrains the market growth. On the contrary, availability of RFID technologies for cold chain applications and adoption of automated software for cold chain logistics are projected to offer lucrative growth opportunity for the market players.
The UK cold chain logistics market is segmented on the basis of end user. Depending on end user, it is categorized into fruits & vegetables; bakery & confectionary; dairy & frozen desserts; meat, fish, and sea food; drugs & pharmaceuticals; and others.
The key players including AGRO Merchants Group, Bring Logistics UK Ltd., Chiltern Cold Storage Group Ltd., Ice Co Storage & Logistics, Kerry Logistics Network Limited, Lineage Logistics Holdings, LLC, NewCold, Nichirei Logistics Group Inc., The Seafast Group, and others are studied in the report.
Increase in refrigerated warehouses due to rise in online grocery shopping
Dozens of warehouses comprising cold chain systems are designed to ensure ideal storage and transportation conditions for temperature-sensitive products. Multiple export industries are dependent on vital links that cold chain solution system provides. Moreover, businesses invest millions of dollars in their cold chain operations to create effective, efficient, and reliable process because an end-to-end cold chain security is the weak link in the system. Single breakdown in the cold chain logistics can lead to catastrophic losses of products and capital. In addition, the UK has been named as the third largest online grocery market in the world after South Korea and Japan. Furthermore, around 6.1% of the grocery sales in the UK is made online, which in turn propels the growth of the cold chain logistics market. Thus, increase in number of refrigerated warehouses to maintain the integrity of grocery sold online is expected to boost the growth of the market.
Growth in the pharmaceutical sector
Pharmaceutical manufacturers increasingly focus on product quality and sensitivity. The factors such as development of complex biological medicines and shipments of hormone treatments, vaccines, and complex proteins that require cold chain refinements increase the need for temperature-controlled transportation and warehousing. In addition, the healthcare logistics industry is witnessing significant growth due to rise in need for temperature-controlled logistics of pharmaceutical products and medical devices; thereby, boosting the market growth. Moreover, increase in need for effective cold chain logistics services to maintain the quality of pharmaceutical products propels the growth of the UK cold chain logistics market. In addition, government in the UK is also taking initiatives to boost the adoption of temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation for pharmaceuticals products. For instance, Mike Thompson, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, has requested the government of UK to build more cold-chain storages as the pharmaceutical products such as biologics, vaccines, insulin, and others require cold storage. Thus, growth in the pharmaceutical sector is anticipated to propel the growth of the cold chain logistics market in the UK.
Lack of standardization
Cold chain logistics and storage industry is witnessing significant growth due to increase in demand from various sources with specific needs. However, lack of standards and accreditations pose significant challenges for the cold chain industry, where quality and flexibility of available cold warehousing space is a major concern. In many cases, companies need to invest more to upgrade its space and specifications compatible to standards that support the individual industry segment. However, the standards formulated by policymakers build pressure on developers, as upgrading facilities, in terms of temperature compliance or accommodating automated equipment, is not an easy task. Furthermore, training and development of manpower on technology and handling products involve heavy capital investment and has become necessity of the industry time to time. Thus, lack of standardization in cold chain logistics is anticipated to hamper the growth of the UK cold chain logistics market.
Availability of RFID technologies for cold chain applications
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies improve the performance of perishable supply chains by tracking geographical positions of individual packages, pallets, shipping containers, or trucks, which can be stationary or in motion during distribution. These technologies are used to identify items through a unique Electronic Product Code (EPC) or other barcode and to store real-time environmental data (including temperature), which is later transmitted, allowing corrective actions to be taken before products are irrevocably damaged. In November 2018, Stora Enso announced the launch of a new sustainable RFID tag technology termed as, “ECO by Stora Enso.” This product is paper based that makes it sustainable and completely recyclable. This technology provides transparency to the manufacturers by allowing them to trace and protect their shipments throughout the product supply chain on real-time basis. The growth in demand for real-time temperature monitoring in cold chain logistics create a remarkable growth opportunity for the players operating in the UK cold chain logistics market.