What impact will Brexit have on cold storage stockpiling?

Following uncertainty sparked by comments from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal, companies across the supply chain may face challenges increasing capacity to stockpile chilled and cold goods.

President Von der Leyen described securing a comprehensive agreement covering all aspects of Brexit as ‘impossible’ within the UK’s current EU membership transition period, which expires at the end of 2020, drawing particular attention to potential barriers for British manufacturing.

With British food and pharmaceutical companies potentially experiencing disruption to frictionless trade in the near future, manufacturers, retailers and the warehousing sector may need to find further storage space to cope with demand around stockpiling food and medicine.

Temporary cooling systems and chillers that can transform ambient temperature warehousing into chilled/cold storage could represent a potential solution to this uncertain situation, according to Aggreko a member of the Cold Chain Federation. These chillers, which modularly range from 50kW to 1500kW and maintain a temperature as low as (minus) -40°C, give companies looking to stockpile the option of creating more storage space at optimum temperatures without needing to make permanent structural changes.

“Last week’s comments from President Von der Leyen on the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and trade means that stockpiling is back on the agenda for many companies, particularly in the food and pharmaceutical sector,” says Matt Watson, Sales Manager at Aggreko. “However, organisations considering stockpiling goods may find themselves in the unenviable position of only needing extra capacity to store materials while this situation is resolved.

“With this in mind, they are understandably unwilling to undertake the expensive and disruptive process of constructing permanent cold storage space they may not need later. Chilled and cold storage solutions from Aggreko can be quickly deployed and installed without impacting production, allowing companies to store additional stock to industry standards and enjoy peace of mind during these uncertain times.”

For more information on Aggreko’s temporary chilled storage solutions, please visit www.aggreko.com.