The venture with J M B axi’s strong customer engagement at multiple levels and infrastructure capabilities, along with IG International’s expertise, aims to leverage the combined maritime trade management experiences and move forward in the direction of domestic transportation with the ultimate goal of being a key service provider to the last mile - i .e. retail stores. This alliance with the trading house, will further establish J M B axi as a trade enabler that offers a single stop solution for customer’s reefer (refrigerated) cargo movements from various parts of the world to India.

The J M B axi and IG International alliance commenced with the building of a cold store at Mumbai Warehousing And Logistics Park located in Nhava Sheva, and then expanded to another similar facility at Delhi Inland Container Terminal in Sonepat. With a c apacity of 3,000 pallets, Mumbai Warehousing And Logistics Park is one of the very few cold storage facilities, that offers customers the option of bonded cold storage. While the cold store at Mumbai Warehousing And Logistics Park is a c hilled cold store where one can store products starting from 0 degrees celsius and upwards, the cold store at Delhi Inland Container Terminal, Sonepat with a capacity of 7,000 pallets has a m ix of frozen and chilled depending upon the customer’s needs. A frozen chamber can store products at temperatures as low as minus 30 degree celsius.

There are several developments underway, as the alliance looks to ramp up its cold storage footprint across the country within the next 18 months. One of them is a s tateof- the-art cold store at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Nhava Sheva which will have a s torage capacity of 10,000 pallets. This new cold store is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2022. The alliance also has an existing cold storage footprint in Jaipur (Rajasthan), Theog (Himachal Pradesh) and Krishnapattam (Andhra Pradesh) with a c umulative pallet capacity of 6,000 pallets.

What sets these facilities apart is the net cargo storage height which is 2250 mm per pallet, as compared to a standard storage height of 1500 mm per pallet. This advantage ensures ease of operation especially from an EXIM standpoint. Additionally, the pallets at most of these facilities, have a weight capacity up to 1 tonne which is significantly higher than the general average, across other cold storage facilities.

As part of the planned expansion, construction of a cold store at Visakhapatnam will commence very soon. The cold store will be in proximity to the J.M Baxi Ports & Logistics operated Visakha Container Terminal and Visakha Container Freight Station. The facility is envisaged to be of 3,000 pallets capacity with several classleading facilities such as storage of chiller, frozen products, bonded facility, packaging, knitting etc. and will be focused on harnessing the import demand of Eastern India for fresh produce and pharmaceutical commodities. Similarly, on the export front, seafood products will find logistical advantages by using this facility.

Additionally, various options are being explored in Chennai & Kolkata as well, to provide warehousing facilities for onward distribution. The goal is to develop a volume capacity of 80,000 pallets and 700 reefer containers by the end of 2022. These are to be developed as facilities for general use and will be available for trading other commodity segments like pharma, meats, seafood, confectionaries etc.

Given the eco-friendly and ecosensitive heritage of J M B axi Ports & Logistics and IG International, the alliance is extremely committed towards a 'Zero Carbon Emissions' model. To this effect, it is investing heavily in solar power for cold storage facilities. Delhi Inland Container Terminal, Sonepat is already running on solar power and Mumbai Warehousing And Logistics Park is in the process of securing the necessary permissions to use solar power as the main source of energy to run the cold store.

The main purpose of building a cold storage business that lives up to the highest standards is to simply ensure access to healthy, fresh and nutrientrich fruits, vegetables and all related food at large. Different foods have unique storage requirements that need to be adhered to, in order to enhance it’s quality and life. Lots of efforts are being made to train manpower and create awareness of the various products we store and what really is required as a co ld chain solution company to ensure that food is offered to the consumer in its healthiest and freshest form.

In its endeavour to render a f ull spectrum of services, the JV is also looking at acquiring custom clearance service expertise. As freight forwarders, the group has for some time been firmly entrenched in developing businesses at various ports in India. IG International also operates over 150 reefer trailers ensuring that the venture can offer end-to-end cold chain solutions to its customers like quality checks, co-ordination with FSSAI, plant and quarantine services etc.

J M B axi Ports & L logistics is also offering clearing services, cargo bonding, container Pre Trip Inspection (PTI), llogistics, rail transportation at all infra facilities, ports and terminals making it one of the biggest players in providing integrated services in the country.

This alliance is a well thought out partnership of two business houses, both of which have carved out a p lace for themselves in their respective industries and will compliment each other in building an extremely successful end-to-end cold chain solutions business, adding real value to their customer and the consumers at large.