Partner Logistics Designs, Builds
and Operates Big Time in Europe
Reported by John M. Saulnier

Operated by Partner Logistics, the fully automated Lamb Weston/Meijer coldstore in Bergen-op-Zoom, Holland, contains 126,000 pallet positions in a state-of-the-art satellite storage system maintained at temperatures below -18° C.

What began with a handshake and a 20-year contract to build and run a refrigerated warehouse for frozen potato products producer Lamb Weston/Meijer (LWM) in the Netherlands back in 2002 has evolved almost a decade later into one of the largest cold storage companies in Europe. From a single, 65,000 pallet position warehouse in Bergen-op-Zoom, Holland, today Partner Logistics operates 12 facilities in four countries with 2,949,866 cubic meters of space and capacity for over 500,000 pallets places.
There’s more to come on the drawing board, including construction of its first site in France.

When CEO Bram Hage founded the business, his idea from the start – and indeed the very name of the company – was spelled out in its mission statement: to partner as a logistics supplier with leading frozen and refrigerated food producers.

Three years after the Lamb Weston/Meijer facility was built it was expanded, and then was enlarged yet again in 2009. Presently the 35-meter-high, fully automated coldstore boasts 126,000 pallet places and handles 4,000 pallets of finished potato and bakery product outfeed on a busy day. That’s more than 100 trailer loads.

Partner Logistics’ growing list of clients includes leading frozen food and ice cream companies in the Benelux, United Kingdom, France and Russia. Among them are Nestlé, Unilever, Birds Eye, Vion, PinguinLutosa, Dawn and YSCO.

Turnover in 2009 reached EUR 55 million, and guaranteed contracts for 2010 already top EUR 62 million. Projections are for revenues to increase to EUR 127 million by 2013.

“We are operators as well as designers and builders, not a distribution company,” Piet Meijs, head of business development, told Quick Frozen Foods International magazine. “Our focus is to provide key customers with logistics solutions wherever and whenever required.”

The company, which employs about 400 people in its warehouse operations, made investments of EUR 97 million in 2009. It also has 50 people in its design and development division, which is engaged full-time in construction and operations upgrade projects.

“Our strategy is to continue growing in a controlled manner – not through takeovers, but organically,” said Meijs. “Working with a proven track record, we are in a strong financial position to expand further.”

When asked in which direction Partner Logistics might next head to break new ground, the business development executive smiled and commented: “We believe that the German market could use a bit more competition.”