As people spend more time at home, food distributors are finding themselves racing to meet the growing demand for cold storage. Before 2020 consumer food spending evenly balanced between foodservice and grocery, now, an overwhelming shift to grocery and direct-to-consumer services is driving a growing boom for refrigerated warehousing and flexible mixed-chain solutions.
An additional 75 million to 100 million square feet of freezer and cooler space is needed to meet the demands of refrigerated warehousing, projected CBRE, a major U.S.-based commercial real estate firm, back in April. While the United States and Great Britain are among the top 5 markets based on total capacity of cold storage, the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) 2020 reported that Mexico, Brazil, and China have the largest unmet need for refrigerated warehouse space.
For example, some foodservice businesses have turned to “restaurant marketplaces” or other alternative selling models in order to adjust and meet market demand.
In order to adapt to this growing trend, Matt Ott, President and CEO of GCCA, says “Now, third-party logistics companies are working with their customers to become full supply chain solutions with a wide variety of value-added services” which includes becoming more involved with the e-commerce and direct-to-consumer tasks.
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