NewCold’s Jonas Swarttouw, Managing Director Europe, outlines the cold chain company’s growth and strategy in a Q&A with the AJOT

Over the past half decade, NewCold has been on fire. Stoked by Westport Capital Partners and its rapid expansion strategy, the Breda, Netherlands-based company now features 26 state-of-the art facilities and 2 million pallet positions worldwide. In the Global Cold Chain Alliance’s 2025 list of largest refrigerated warehousing and logistics companies in the world, NewCold ranked 3rd behind cold chain giants Lineage and Americold. AJOT was able to catch up with Jonas Swarttouw, NewCold’s Managing Director Europe, recently and ask him a handful of questions about the company’s expansion, technology and sustainability.

Jonas Swarttouw

AJOT: Can NewCold continue the aggressive expansion pace it has set?

Swarttouw: NewCold supports the food industry in the transformation of their supply chains to become more future proof. In other words, find better ways to deal with challenges to handle larger volumes, faster, more reliable at lower costs. In a world with constraints in land, labor and power, our proven highly automated logistics solutions are a good fit with the industry’s needs. As such we expect to keep growing together with our current and future partners in the food industry.

AJOT: How does NewCold’s strategic alliances (Conagra, Lamb Weston, etc...) contribute to NewCold’s success?

Swarttouw: A lot of factors need to fall in place to successfully develop and operate world’s largest and most innovative automated warehouses. This would not be possible without a strong partnership and aligned longer term strategic vision between our partners such as CAG, LW, McCain, Froneri, etc.

AJOT: Are rising food costs a concern?

Swarttouw: Access to the right quality food at the right price and location is important for any society. Rising food costs are for a large part the results of what we call inflation of everything over the last years. On the capex side and on the operating costs side of food (where logistics services play a role). We are proud that our logistics solutions contribute not only to keeping the product quality high, but we also support delivering products at the right time at competitive costs.

AJOT: Will increasing food costs threaten online grocery shopping, home delivery and other consumer behavior that has fueled cold chain growth?

Swarttouw: The capex and opex side of logistics services needed for home delivery have gone up and therefore often require a higher cost per delivery. Online shopping is however not the only trend contributing to cold chain development. A key trend fueling the growth is that future proofing the supply chain, requires the switch from older facilities and equipment to state of the art, automated and often large-scale logistics solutions.

AJOT: How will NewCold’s Global Innovation and Support Center (GISC) in Breda, the Netherlands serve as the global hub for technological innovation, operations, and support across NewCold’s network?

Swarttouw: The GISC is our gathering place for international teams that work on innovative technology used in our new warehouse and transport solutions deployed worldwide. It is a showcase for our vertical integration in warehouse software, robotics, transport and supply chain management, etc. From the office we also support our global operations 24/7, power by Systems & People.

AJOT: NewCold recently inaugurated one of the world’s most advanced automated warehouses in Nowy Modlin, Poland. How will technology (IoT, AI, automation, retrieval systems, etc...) drive NewCold’s “leading role in innovation?”

Swarttouw: We always say, “our last warehouse is the best”, as we always implement new technological solutions that improve our operations. We are very proud of the Modlin customer partnerships, our project teams, suppliers, operational teams who have started up the warehouse seamlessly. Looking beyond technology, we see the service, capacity and costs competitiveness make Modlin a great gathering place for food shippers. Unlocking synergies in transport to customers across Poland and Europe.

AJOT: Is reducing the standard cold chain temperature from -18 ºC to -15ºC a realistic idea?

Swarttouw: I believe the intent behind the initiative is good, creating a more energy efficient cold chain. For some food categories it could also require tradeoffs in terms of use of food ingredients we may not want to use anymore. Therefore, it is important that the food industry drives the initiatives as they are in the best position to make these tradeoffs. We are there to support if needed. And if the temperature stays at current levels, it is good to know that NewCold’s automated coldstores only use 50% of the energy compared to conventional coldstores.

AJOT: Is Net Zero an achievable goal for NewCold?

Swarttouw: NewCold does not view sustainability and commercial imperatives as binary choices. Sustainability fuels the innovation that helps us better serve our customers, people, and planet. We are investing in sustainable energy to run our facilities. We believe that our own power generation using renewables is the right thing to do for this planet and the right thing to do commercially.