At Lufthansa Cargo's home base Rhine-Main, groundwork has begun to enlarge the carrier's facility for storing and handling temperature sensitive products. The new facility will comprise 3,500 square meters, complementing the existing facility of 4,500 m2.
Pictured (l > r): Joerg Bodenroeder Senior-Director of Handling Specials Products / Soeren Stark, Board Member Operations / Karin Krestan, Head of Process & Operations Team / Mohammad Ali Seiraffi, Vice President of LHC Handling Frankfurt - courtesy LHC
"Pharmaceuticals, perishables, fresh foodstuff or medicines are a fast growing sector, evidenced by the steadily increasing number of these produce transported by us," notes LHC speaker
Andreas Pauker. To capture an even greater portion of these yield-attractive items the enlargement of the existing Cool Center is a must, he says. However, when asked about the costs Andreas
remains tight-lipped. "In the single-digit million euro range," he remains quite vague. It will be entirely financed out of LHC's own cashbox, without receiving any state subsidies.
More capacity, greater flexibility
In the course of the ground breaking ceremony, Board Member Ops Soeren Stark emphasized that LHC has gained a great deal of experience over the last years in the transportation and processing of
temp spensitive commodities, highlighted by the recent CEIV certification from IATA. Soeren stated: "The excellent collaboration with numerous shippers from the pharmaceutical and chemical
industrie has prompted demand for our service to grow consistently." The executive states that thanks to the Cool Center's forthcoming enlargement LH Cargo can offer their customers even more
capacity and flexible storage and throughput solutions for all kinds of temp sensitive products.
Existing Cool Center will be upgraded
If all goes well, the doors of the new facility will swing open in late summer. From then on, a total of 8,000 square meters will be available on the carrier's home turf Frankfurt for processing
temperature critical items.
In a release, LHC announced that once construction works are completed, the existing Cool Center, dating back to 2011, will be further improved. Currently, it offers four different
temperature-controlled chambers (-12° to -20°C / 2° to 8°C / 5° to 15°C / 15 to 25°C). In addition, there is a deep-freeze room and the facility has direct access to
the apron.
LH Cargo points out that their existing facility is already the largest of its kind for temp critical freight in Europe.
So with the upcoming addition of another 3,500 square meters the freight carrier should be well positioned to capture even lager portions of the price attractive cool segment.
The management will present the carrier’s annual result 2016 to the media next Wednesday (29 March) in Frankfurt, and deliver an outlook for the current year.
As announced by CargoForwarder Global on March 16, LHC slid into the red in 2016, posting losses amounting to €50 million.
Heiner Siegmund