To mark the opening of the Port of Felixstowe’s first Cold Store in ten years, an open day was held on Friday 17th July. This provided an ideal opportunity to introduce the establishment named Seafast Celsius and showcase its unique capabilities to key players in the reefer industry. Visitors included delegates from Maersk, MSC and DEFRA, along with strong interest from other major groups.

The introduction of Seafast Celsius is the latest step in the development of the Port of Felixstowe’s port centric logistics services. The port has already established solutions with numerous ambient and dry goods shippers for FMCG and bulk commodities, but the Celsius concept was born out of the needs of the cold chain and temperature controlled consignments.

Seafast Celsius is predominately focused on the following activities;
• Cross Dock Cargo Transfer, loading directly to onward chill trailers for distribution or storage
• Product Labelling
• Order Picking
• Quality Control ability
• Manual handball
• Reefer de-hire
Offering customers container, consolidation/load lightening, to enable the import of heavy containers unable to travel on UK roads, which can be load lightened at our premises prior to onward distribution, thus saving shipment costs on additional containers.

There are already plans to extend a further three phases within the current location, and it is planned to develop these based on customer requirement either chilled or frozen.
For anyone who missed out on meeting the Celsius team and discussing future prospects, as well as having a look around the facility and areas of interest, there will be a second event on Friday 31st July. Everyone is welcome to visit Seafast Celsius for this event, and the team look forward to answering and queries. For any enquiries about Celsius or the event itself please contact Seafast Celsius on 01394 613 195 or email Celsius@seafast.com. For more information on Seafast and the services they supply please visit www.seafast.com. It is also possible to contact the Celsius team directly using one of the following contacts;

• David Baker
Email: dbaker@seafast.com
Mob: 07545 436 933

• Lee George
Email: LGeorge@seafast.com
Mob: 07545 436 934

• David Bowden
Email: DBowden@seafast.com
Mob: 07545 436 932

The month of May brings the end of the Egyptian Spring Onion season and with it the completion of the first Egyptian season since establishing Seaworld Express (UK) Limited.  From November 2008 to May 2009 Seaworld Express (UK) has handled the import clearance and onward delivery of over 200 Refrigerated TEU’s for various Fresh Produce Importers. 

In addition to the Spring Onions the company have also seen Leeks, Peas and Coriander being imported during the same season, taking the total number of Refrigerated TEU’s handled by the company to over 300.

 Seaworld Express (UK) receives original paperwork from Egypt, arranges customs clearance at port, and if necessary, issues Defra Certificates to cover certain foods.  They also arrange the collection and delivery of containers to inland premises.

This business bodes well with the opening of the parent company’s (Seafast Holdings Plc) new cold store project under the subsidiary ‘Celsius’ in Felixstowe Port, and highlights the ability to handle specialised perishable cargo. 

Seaworld Express (UK) would like to extend a special thank you to all of their customers involved in the importation of Fresh Produce from Egypt for their support, and look forward to continuing their relationship later this year when the new season kicks in.

For more information contact Rob Davey.  Tel: 01394 694 824 Email: rdavey@seaworldexpress.co.uk.

In April this year three former Port Managers with over 50 years operating experience joined Seafast Holdings Plc to open ‘Celsius’ the companies new temperature controlled facility.   David Baker, Lee George and David Bowen have all joined Seafast reporting to David Halliday.

The new cold store takes advantage of the recognised need for a supplier of quick and efficient devan capability, which in turn enables  an  efficient service  to importers of temperature controlled goods.  The target market for this service is chilled and frozen produce suppliers and transporters  i.e. fruit/veg/poultry/fish.  This facility will also be used by the companies UK arm of Seaworld Express lines to add value to its services.

This provision reduces the customer’s carbon foot print and emissions in the supply chain, due to less road miles and also reduces the end cost to the customer.  This is done by de-vanning containers within the Port and transferring cargo in to customers own transport on site.

For more information please contact David Baker. Tel: 01394 694 800 Email: davidbaker@seafast.com

Please see Port of Felixstowe press release below:

  Warm Reception for a Chilly Solution

After an absence of ten years, Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited is pleased to announce the return of Commercial Cold Storage and Handling Services at the Port of Felixstowe. In a unique venture between the Port and Seafast Logistics Plc, agreements were recently signed for the first of four phases of development. The facility, appropriately named “Celsius” will be operated by Seafast and serviced by the Port. Chris Lewis, CEO HPUK said “We are delighted to be taking this next logical step in the ongoing development of our Port-centric Logistics Services. Having already established solutions with numerous ambient and dry goods shippers for FMCG and bulk commodities, our attention was turned to the needs of the cold chain and temperature-controlled consignments.”

David Halliday, MD Seafast Group commented “We have been exploring the market for such a facility for some time. There is undoubtedly a significant requirement for an on-Port solution offering a range of services to carriers, importers and cargo owners all seeking to reduce their supply chain costs and improve their overall efficiency at this time. After consideration, we have opted for a modular construction, supplied by the market leaders Dawson Group, which will allow us to develop all four phases rapidly whilst still retaining a high degree of in-built flexibility.”

Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited

Hutchison Ports (UK) (HPUK) is a member of the Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group, a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL). HPH is the world’s leading port investor, developer and operator with interests in a total of 49 ports, spanning 25 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. HPH also owns a number of transportation-related service companies. HPUK operates the Port of Felixstowe, London Thamesport and Harwich International Port.

Seafast Holdings Limited

 Seafast Celsius PLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seafast Holdings Limited providing a range of services to meet the needs of Customers Shipping both ambient and chilled cargo from around the world.

On 1 May 2009 Seafast Logistics finished the refurbishment programme of its flatrack stock at the container storage site in Southampton.

The work was undertaken by Fabrication and Site Services (FASS), a key partner to SFL in the provision of container repairs.

The purpose of the refurbishment is to enable Seafast Logistics to provide high quality serviceable assets to facilitate the delivery of breakbulk and OOG cargo between UK Pakistan/Afghanistan utilising liner service vessels.

This means that now Seafast Logistics has the capability to provide immediate availability of flatracks to meet customers’ requirements.

For more information contact Pete Allsop. Tel: 01256 799 150 Email: PAllsop@seafast.com

In March this year Seafast Holdings Security division secured a major contract in Uganda/Kenya to provide logistics and convoy security to one of the world’s largest coffee brands.

Seafast have now broken into the East African Region which brings many new and exciting opportunities for the future.   Already Seafast Security has been asked to deliver the same service to the second largest coffee producer in Uganda.   Seafast Holdings are also in discussion with the WFP (World Food Programme) to come on board.

Key Seafast personnel are heading back out to Africa on the 18^th of this month to set this operation up.

For more information on this please contact Bill Smith. Tel: 01394 694 800 Email: WSmith@sefast.com