Americold #1 PRW; Acquisition-driven Lineage Now #2

Americold Logistics and China Merchants Americold remain the largest operator of public refrigerated warehouse (PRW) space in the world by far, according to the “2014 IARW Top 25 Global” list just released by the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW). With 26,902,404 cubic meters of space under its roofs in the USA, China, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina, its capacity is almost double that of the #2 company in the rankings.

The big news this year, however, is that runner-up Lineage Logistics has rocketed into second place following its acquisitions of Omaha, Nebraska, USA-headquartered Millard Refrigerated Services in March, followed by purchases in May of McAllen, Texas-based Loop Cold Storage and Henderson, Colorado-headquartered Oneida Cold Storage. Other holdings of Lineage are Richmond Cold Storage, Terminal Freezers, Flint River Services, CityIce, and Seafreeze.

In the space of just two years Lineage, which was formed by San Francisco, California-headquartered private equity firm Bay Grove Capital in 2011, has more than quadrupled its capacity from 3,610,460 cubic meters of space in 2012 to 15,416,060.

“The addition of Millard, Loop, and Oneida represent another transformational moment for Lineage and continues our long-term strategy to build the leader in temperature controlled logistics,” said Kevin Marchetti, managing director of Bay Grove.

Ranking third in the IARW’s “Top 25” listing is the Swire Group, which saw its global capacity rise from 7,668,918 cubic meters in 2012 to 8,624,663 in 2014. Its operations are present in Australia, China, Sri Lanka, the USA and Vietnam.
 
Chatham, New Jersey, USA-headquartered Preferred Freezer Services is the fourth largest operation in the world, with 6,657,287 cubic meters of space available to customers in the USA, China and Vietnam. That’s up by 562,068 cubic meters since 2012.

Number 5 in the world continues to be the Nichirei Logistics Group, with 4,315,673 cubic meters of space at facilities in Japan, the Netherlands and Poland.

Sixth on the IARW listing is Kloosterboer of the Netherlands, which operates 3,522,707 cubic meters of space in several countries – up from 3,033,924 in 2012.

As for # 7, the IARW lists VersaCold Logistics Service of Canada at 3,259,050 cubic meters of space. However, it should be pointed out that a non-IARW member, Schortens, Germany-headquartered Nordfrost GmbH & Co. KG, operates 3,350,000 cubic meters of space, which would quality it for the seventh position were it an IARW member.

In any event, the Alexandria, Virginia, USA-headquartered IARW calculates total capacity of  “The Global Top 25” currently at 95.20 million cubic meters – a 4% increase from 2013. The combined space of IARW total membership, including the “Global Top 25” and “North American Top 25” members, accounts for 124.29 million cubic meters – a 2% increase from this time last year.

“The changes to the Top 25 Lists reflect positive growth, as well as increasing consolidation in the public refrigerated warehousing industry,” said IARW President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch. “Our members are strengthening the cold chain around the world to meet the needs of the food industry.”  

The IARW’s “Top 25 Global” listing details follow:

2014 IARW Top 25 Global
Public Refrigerated Warehousing Companies