A pair of entrepreneurial business partners have opened a cold storage facility opposite the soon-to-be opened wholesale market in Epping.
Industry Minister Lily D’Ambrosio heaped praise on Chashampal Gill and Ravi Prasad at the official opening of their centre, just off Cooper Street, earlier this month.
Their Iceland Cold Storage business opened on August 14 to service wholesalers and growers who will operate at the new Epping market, due to open next week.
Mr Prasad said he and business partner Mr Gill, who own refrigerated transport company GRT Transport, had harboured the idea for years before purchasing the Epping site last year. “All our customers have been pushing us to open a cold storage facility,” he said.
They started work on the $18 million storage in January. The facility has six blast freezers with the capacity to freeze 950 tonnes a day and hold up to 10,000 frozen pallets at a time.
Six loading docks have been built to reduce the unloading and loading time. Mr Prasad said the company would also provide a warehouse management system, quarantine services and inspections, shrink wrapping, transport and export documentation for its customers.
Paul Fleiszig, chairman of the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia, said the opening of the wholesale market in Epping would attract other cold storage facilities to the area, but said Wyndham would remain the food distribution hub of Australia.
The largest cold storage facility in Australia is based in Laverton. Oxford Cold Storage has the capacity to hold 175,000 pallets.
