Cold storage facility owner and operator Americold Realty Trust (NYSE: COLD) announced it has resumed construction on its New Zealand expansion project.
The company plans to spend approximately 65 million New Zealand dollars (U.S. $41.9 million) on the Auckland infrastructure project, which will add 4.6 million cubic feet and 27,000 pallet positions to the facility.
“We are excited to move forward on this opportunity to grow with our customers in this dynamic market. With this expansion, Americold is adding capacity to support the expected growth of the national retailers, food producers, processors, distributors, and quick-service restaurants in New Zealand,” said Americold Managing Director for the International Division Richard Winnall.
The press release stated that Countdown Supermarkets, a subsidiary of Woolworths Group Limited (ASX: WOW.AX) will be the anchor tenant on the expansion. Countdown has 180 grocery stores across New Zealand.
“We’re really happy with the customer-focused and sophisticated service that Americold provides, and this has made the decision to move forward with Americold easy,” said Countdown General Manager of Store Operations and Logistics Brett Ashley. “We’re looking forward to continuing this long-standing partnership with Americold which will help us improve product availability for our customers and maintain timely deliveries to our stores.”
The project, originally announced on Americold’s fourth-quarter earnings call, is expected to be completed by mid-2021.
In May, Ahold Delhaize USA (Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize OTCUS: ADRNY) announced a $325 million project with Americold to build two new facilities in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. These facilities are expected to serve more than 750 grocery stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic by the second half of 2023.
Americold is an Atlanta-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that operates 183 temperature-controlled facilities, including 11 facilities in its third-party managed segment, with approximately 1.1 billion refrigerated cubic feet of storage in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina.
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