The world’s largest temperature-controlled warehousing organisation intends to invest $65 million NZD ($60 million AUD) in a planned expansion of its Woolworths site in Auckland, New Zealand.
Americold will make a multi-million investment into the expansion of Woolworths New Zealand (Countdown supermarkets) as part of a long-term commitment.
This expansion will increase the Dalgety site’s capacity by over 15,000m2 and approximately 27,000 pallet positions.
At completion, the facility will be equipped with 20 additional dock doors and semi-automated container unloading technology to drive efficiencies.
Richard Winnall, Managing Director for the International Division of Americold said the company is excited to move forward on this opportunity to grow with its customers in this dynamic market.
“With this expansion, Americold is adding capacity to support the expected growth of the national food producers, processors, distributors, quick-service restaurants and retailers in New Zealand,” he said.
“We’re really happy with the customer-focused and sophisticated service that Americold provides, and this has made the decision to move forward with Americold easy,” said Brett Ashley, Countdown’s General Manager Store Operations and Logistics.
“We’re looking forward to continuing this long-standing partnership with Americold which will help us improve product availability for our customers and maintain timely deliveries to our stores,” he said.
The New Zealand expansion will take approximately 12 months and bring much needed capacity to the Auckland and North Island markets.
Construction has resumed and the project is expected to be completed by mid-2021.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Americold owns and operates 183 temperature-controlled warehouses, with approximately 1.1 billion refrigerated cubic feet of storage, in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Argentina.