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£6m Liverpool Produce Terminal heralds sea change in logistics

For Immediate Release - 04 February, 2008

A new £6m million fresh produce terminal is to be built in the Port of Liverpool to put imports of fruit and vegetables closer to half the UK population and cut truck movements and carbon emissions on Britain's roads.

View larger imageArtist's visual of the Liverpool Produce Terminal.

Liverpool Produce Terminal (LPT), located alongside the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and the site of the port's planned £100+ million Post Panamax River Container Terminal, will initially offer a cost effective all-water alternative to the 300 trucks arriving in Britain with fruit from Spain every day.

The new 90,000 sq ft cool store will be operated by Go-Associates, consisting of Lewis Clements, who launched the LPT concept, long established logistics operators Cold Move, with their head office in Oswestry and ICA, International Controlled Atmosphere Limited, who will build the unit.

View larger imageAerial visual showing the Liverpool Produce Terminal and Post Panamax River Container Terminal.

The quayside facility will be equipped with four individually controlled chambers with a temperature range of -5°C to +14°C and be able to accommodate produce four pallets high. The largest reefer vessels can be accommodated alongside the cool store which will have the capability to discharge a 4,000 pallet ship in 24 hours.

Lewis Clements, joint Managing Director of Go-Associates, said: "Ten million tonnes of fresh produce are shipped into the UK each year and half of it comes up to the North of England. It makes economic and environmental sense to bring that volume to the deepsea port that is closest to the population of 30 million people and is served by the best motorway network for rapid distribution direct to supermarkets."

LPT expects to be operational by September - the start of the Spanish fresh produce season. Said Mr Clements: "Spain supplies the UK with two million tonnes of fresh produce every year. A million tonnes of that goes to the North of the country, most of it by road on trucks carrying just 26 pallets each from the main growing areas of Spain.

"The situation cries out for high volume direct delivery by sea, into a state-of-the-art fresh produce terminal, ideally located to reach any part of this vast market within a truck driver's tachograph driving day. Liverpool Produce Terminal maintains the cool chain but can eliminate up to two truck journeys from the logistics chain - the journey to the regional distribution centre and the link to the pack house."

Go-Associates plan to operate Liverpool Produce Terminal around the clock, employing a skilled team of 30 full time staff, supplemented to a total of 100 when a reefer vessel is discharging.

Frank Robotham is Marketing Director of Peel Ports Group, which owns and operates the Port of Liverpool, now handling 34 million tonnes of cargo a year. He said: "We are delighted that LPT's initiative will further strengthen the port's role in meeting the needs of the food industry. The new terminal offers the food industry a way of reducing food miles and at the same time, creates a unique opportunity for Peel Ports to provide both northern and southern gateways into the UK's fresh produce market through its ports at Liverpool and Sheerness in Kent. The development also further consolidates Liverpool's position as the most diverse cargo handling port in the UK."

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