On June 5th, 2019, the ground-breaking ceremony for the new warehouse took place in St. Petersburg, Russia in the presence of Maersk CEO Søren Skou, Fyffes CEO David McCann and representatives of regional and federal Russian administration. Constructed by the Russian industrial developer PNK Group, the facility will be located within the PNK Park Sofiyskaya KAD in St. Petersburg and has 23 700 m², with 35 docks able to serve daily throughput of up to 200 trucks.
The maximum storage capacity will be over 50 000 tons and the fully Maersk-operated warehouse will employ over 200 employees. Approximately 40 per cent of the new warehouse will be occupied by Europe’s leading fruit company Fyffes, with the remaining capacity available for other customers from the fresh and frozen produce segment.
The facility will offer separate storage chambers for frozen produce (-25°C), chilled (+2/+8°C), as well as for bananas, which require a specific temperature of +13°C. Since 2017, Russia has been the second largest importer of bananas in the world, after the United States and surpassing Germany.
“Maersk is transforming to deliver integrated end-to-end solutions for our customers’ supply chains. While growing our Ocean activities in line with the market, investing in unbroken cold chain offerings is one of the levers we pull to accelerate our non-Ocean business and grow ahead of the market”, says Maersk CEO Søren Skou.
