Thomas Ridley announces construction of new frozen storage facility

Wholesaler Thomas Ridley Foodservice has announced the construction of a new 25,000 sq ft freezer facility in Bury St Edmunds due to be operational by September.

The new site will have volume for more than 2,000 pallets, increasing the current frozen sales volume capacity by more than 50%. The new store will also include voice picking, warehouse management and multi-order picking onto electronic trucks.

Chilled sales volume capacity will also double as Thomas Ridley will convert the current freezer facility into a chilled store. During this depot upgrade extra space for ambient storage will also be created.

This development represents a further £3.6m investment by the wholesaler (including the cost of the new building), which coincides with Thomas Ridley Foodservice's 100th anniversary as a limited company.

The building housing the new freezer store will also include purpose-built offices designed by Bluespace, to which current head office staff based in Rougham will transfer when complete.

John Hepworth, operations director, said: "The new 25,000 square foot freezer store will significantly improve our frozen offering and will also allow us to double our chilled proposition. This will ensure that we can provide our end user customers with a far greater range of both chilled and frozen products. It also represents a significant opportunity for current, as well as potential suppliers, in that we can now provide an even faster and more cost effective route to market. Both of these investments are integral to our overall 10 year plan that will allow us the capacity to double our sales volume by 2027."

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