THE PICK 'n Pay group is to build a giant temperature-controlled distribution centre in Port Elizabeth.
The company has bought 2,5 hectares of the old
showgrounds from the Port Elizabeth Agricultural Society. It is prime land with easy access to all the major arterial routes in and around Port Elizabeth.
The final cost of the development will only be known once tenders for building the centre, which will cover around 2500 square metres of floor space, have been awarded says Pick 'n Pay regional manager supermarkets, Bruce Nicholls.
The facility is expected to be completed in time for Christmas.
Port Elizabeth, which is central to both international and national markets, has long been mooted as a logistics and distribution centre.
Several consortia are known to be working on plans to set up logistics centres, but Pick 'n Pay's will be the first.
For Pick 'n Pay it will shorten distribution lines considerably. At the moment the southern part of the Eastern Cape is being served from Cape Town, while the Border region is served from Johannesburg, says Nicholls. Once the distribution centre is built we will be able to source more locally. We will be looking at developing new products, like local fish lines and salad lines, as well as poultry and meat.
Basically, we don't want to see trucks coming back empty. If we have a truck coming from East London anyway it should maybe be full of pineapples.
The centre will serve the area from Queenstown in the East to Mossel Bay in the West.
Nicholls says it will be a copy of the one built a year ago in Gauteng and which is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced distribution centres in the world.
The whole area will be temperature-controlled. Trucks will back into special bays and will be sealed into the building to maintain the cold chain.
While there will be storage facilities, most of the fresh produce and meat will flow directly through the centre for distribution to the group's 13 Eastern Cape supermarkets and a Hypermarket. It will probably also serve other Pick 'n Pay operations, such as the Seven-11 stores, says Nicholls.
Produce will arrive ready-packed directly from the farm in packaging designed for display.
After the farmer the next person to touch the fruit
or vegetables should be
the housewife.
He says the development is part of Pick 'n Pay's national strategy regarding the distribution of fresh foods.
By Ed Richardson
