NewCold, the cold chain logistics provider based in the Netherlands, has opened its first fully mechanized cold store in the US, in Tacoma, 35 miles south of Seattle.
“Davanti’s warehouse management system gives NewCold the competitive advantage we strive for in our 11 cold stores on 3 continents.”
Piet Meijs, VP Business Development
Largest Cold Storage
Davanti’s cloud warehouse management systeem CORAX manages the logistics processes in this state-of-the-art cold storage.
The facility is one of the largest in the US with a storage capacity of over 25 million cubic feet, comparable to the volume of Seahawks CenturyLink Field. The innovative cold storage, with approximately 100,000 pallet locations, has been built to suit the needs of Trident Seafoods, the primary tenant. Trident, one of the world’s largest seafood companies, is vertically integrated, harvesting, processing and marketing seafood from Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
A look at the Highbay
Automation
The cold storage uses leading-edge technology including automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) to automatically move and store products in the ‘dark’ high-bay warehouse. Operators direct equipment using advanced software systems, while products are kept in optimal conditions with all cold storage areas cooled to sub-zero temperatures. Newcold’s advanced cold chain solution ensures that processes are sustainable, traceable, fully integrated with the processes of NewCold’s customers, and always at the very forefront of technological developments. It offers a high and consistent logistic service level, and above all, offers a more energy-efficient and better food safety alternative to more conventional cold storage solutions.
Warehouse Management
The logistics processes, using high-tech mechanical automation, are controlled by the cloud-based and SaaS warehouse management system CORAX. NewCold has chosen CORAX wms because of the scalability, friendly user interface and simple linking options. CORAX grows along with the operation of the customer, it is easy to learn from new users and is based on the latest technologies from Microsoft. In addition, many reports can be generated with CORAX, with the integrated Power BI tool, which provides in-depth insight into the operation. Mr. Eric van Gilst, Business Development Manager of Davanti, says: “We are proud to contribute with our wms to the optimization of food storage in the USA. It is a pleasure to do this together with NewCold and its client Trident Seafoods.”
NewCold Tacoma
Along with the leading-edge technologies used in addition to the automated pallet retrieval systems, the building itself is leading edge in that different from conventional construction, this building is supported by the structure of the product storage racks themselves. The low-oxygen environment reduces the risk of fire typically associated with the very dry environments found in a cold storage. This reduction in fire risk in turn allows for a higher volume of product to be stored on a footprint and is designed to require half the energy consumed by conventional cold stores to keep the products optimally frozen.
Recently, NewCold has built a second cold store in the USA, in Burley (ID). The first pallets entered the cold store in May 2019. In this warehouse, the operation is being started up for the primary customer McCain, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, which has a production location right next to the cold store. In this state of the art coldstore Davanti’s WMS will manage the warehouse processes as well. Like the Tacoma facility, the Idaho cold storage is highly automated, around 130 feet high and has a storage capacity of 90,000 pallet locations.