The new £6.5M warehouse was built on the firm’s existing site in Whitchurch, Shropshire to accommodate increased demand from customers, it said.
The 5,000m2 warehouse – the company’s largest single warehouse – has a capacity of 22,000 pallet spaces and is part of an overall investment of £11M.
The firm’s md David Grocott said the investment would help it build a diverse client base: “Our business growth strategy is to maintain and build a diverse base of customers in terms of size and across the food industry.”
‘Significant growth’
“This wide customer base keeps business risk low and has led to significant growth over recent years.”
The chilled warehouse has been earmarked for existing customers’ products and will soon be filled to capacity, the firm added.
To watch a timelapse video of the warehouse being built, scroll down to the bottom of this article.
Grocott claimed the business had achieved growth and secured new business through providing a wide range of services.
“Added to this has been our flexibility to offer value-added services such as providing a cheese cutting facility, a fruit and vegetable sorting line including quality control and magnetic screening – and a bread re-packing facility,” he claimed.
Grocontinental’s customer base includes food industry brands, primarily serving the dairy, meat and bakery products sectors. Its multi-temperature storage ranges from -28°c to +12°c.
Investment in transport
Investment in its transport division includes renewal of the company’s fleet of 65 vehicles and 10 new refrigerated trailers from supplier Gray and Adams. That should be completed by the end of the year, claimed Grocott.
“We aim to renew our fleet of vehicles every three to five years to ensure the latest in vehicle technology, economy and reliability,” he added.
Last year, the firm opened a £5M 4,000m2 frozen food warehouse on the same site.
Grocontinental was founded in the 1930s by the father of current chairman Ray Grocott.
The business is now led by the third generation of the Grocott family, brother and sister David and Linda.