“Laser Focus” on Chilled Food and Drinks Says Culina CEO
28th March 2017
The Chilled logistics division of Culina Logistics has announced growth plans. New long term contracts, secured between two and five years, totalling over £130 million and a commitment to a £38 million investment in new Chilled logistics infrastructure are “a defining statement of intent”, said the Chilled Food and Drink logistics specialist.
“Now that our colleagues at Great Bear Distribution are fully responsible for the management and growth of their specialist arena, Ambient, we at Culina Logistics are applying a laser focus on development of our Chilled Food and Drinks logistics sector, our own long term core area of logistics expertise,” said Culina Logistics CEO Steve Winwood. “The acquisition of Great Bear Distribution has bedded in superbly well, and we have now completely transferred over all our ambient logistics responsibilities. This year we are establishing the footprint for the further evolution of Culina Logistics as the specialist chilled logistics arm of the Culina Group, and 2017 is already promising to be our most exciting year yet.”
The majority of the new contracts are with blue chip FMCG giants actively working in partnership, with Culina Logistics mostly acting as the clients’ total UK warehousing and distribution function.
“We have recently been awarded new long term contracts with chilled food and drink manufacturers including Pepsico, Mondelez, Emmi, Jack Links (Peperami), Friesland Campina, General Mills, Nestle, and two very significant own label juice manufacturers,” said Winwood.
Culina Logistics already has an extensive UK network of seven specialist chilled logistics distribution centres, but says network expansion is necessary to ensure the required capacity to accept the volume of projected growth. As a result the company is also investing over £38 million in new specialist infrastructure to provide the capacity needed for its planned programme of Chilled logistics expansion over the coming years.
The establishment of a Chilled multi-user logistics “Super Centre” is currently in the final stages of completion and planned to be operational by mid-2018.