Chilled food distributor NFT is to open a £20 million state-of-the art temperature-controlled distribution centre at Forth Port’s Port of Tilbury.
The centre, planned to open in late 2015, is a long-term partnership investment with NFT to create a unique PortCentric distribution centre which will be one of the largest refrigerated (“reefer”) quayside facilities in Europe. The distribution centre will benefit from the latest distribution technology systems and is expected to create 500 new jobs.
The 230,000 sq ft DC will be located within the port estate adjacent to the London Container Terminal, which handles over 500,000 containers each year.
As one of the largest reefer facilities in Europe with over 1400 points and onsite examination services for customs clearance, LCT has excellent value added services 24/7 which will provide the perfect synergy with NFT’s modern system controlled chilled facility. LCT also benefits from a mix of global deep sea, and European feedering and short sea links which already carry a multitude of chilled goods through the terminal.
David Frankish, Chief Executive Officer of NFT commented: “This PortCentric extension to NFT’s offering and substantial expansion to our chilled warehousing capacity in the South East will be a further step in defining our future development and growth as a key innovator of logistics services for the UK and global food industry. We deliver £11 billion worth of food products (at retail value) to UK retailers and manufacturers each year and NFT has experienced major success borne of its ability to provide integrated solutions to complex logistical challenges. We look forward to the centre opening later this year and we are confident of its commercial success based on the level of enquiries this new platform is generating already.”
The distribution centre is targeted to be open for business by late 2015. It will have capacity for 25,000 pallets and be able to handle more than 2.5 million cases per week.
