Construction has begun on SH Pratt’s new port-centric packing and service provision venture Halo at London Gateway.
On 5 February the first soil was moved at the £15 million portside facility, which will pack and handle a range of fruits outside of the supplier's core product, bananas.
These will include topfruit, citrus and grapes, in what will be the port’s first temperature-controlled, chilled and frozen packing warehouse.
Speaking at Fruit Logistica in Berlin, Halo's managing director Gavin Knight said he was excited to see the concept “now starting to take life”.
“We see this as the biggest shift in the fresh produce supply chain for decades,” he said, highlighting the benefits the facility will bring to the supply chain.
Not only will the warehouse’s location and multifunctionality speed up transit times and boost the freshness of imports, it will also cut processing costs and create a smaller carbon footprint, Knight said.
The new facilty will make the end-to-end cost of processing Southern Hemisphere fruit 30-35 per cent cheaper at London Gateway than at its main competitors, Knight claimed, citing the port’s close proximity to the M25.
Halo is set for completion at the end of September, following a 24-week build and a 16-week fit out. Once complete, the warehouse will include three ripening chambers; a large added value facility for flow wrapping, heat-sealing and grading among other services; and seven cool chambers, with capacity for 9,000 pallets.
The handling venture comes as London Gateway continues to attract growing numbers of shipping lines from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
To date £1.5 billion has been spent on developing the deepwater port, with a further £1.5bn to be invested over the coming years.
