IN Brief:
- Thermotraffic expanded its Wrexham distribution centre on 28 September with approximately 19,300 additional pallet positions.
- Total storage capacity rises to around 33,150 pallets, with the new building becoming the company’s first automated warehouse.
- The site also supports food handling services including freezing, tempering, labelling, repacking and inspection.
Thermotraffic has completed a major expansion of its Wrexham distribution centre, adding approximately 19,300 pallet positions and introducing the company’s first automated warehouse.
The new building entered operation on 28 September and increases total capacity at the Wrexham site to around 33,150 pallets, according to parent company Nichirei. The extension provides approximately 48,000 tonnes of additional storage capacity, taking the overall centre to about 77,000 tonnes when the existing operation is included.
Thermotraffic specialises in temperature controlled food logistics and combines warehousing with transport, freight forwarding and additional product handling. Wrexham serves food manufacturers and retailers in a region where meat and livestock processing form an important part of the manufacturing base.
The expanded building introduces automated storage into the Thermotraffic network for the first time. Nichirei says the technology is intended to improve operating efficiency and safety while supporting consistent logistics performance as demand for temperature controlled storage continues.
Thermotraffic’s own specification puts the extension at about 19,000 frozen pallet spaces and describes commercial availability from October 2026. The warehouse operates at frozen temperatures between approximately -10°C and -20°C and is designed to handle both UK standard and Euro pallet formats.
A new production area adds food handling operations alongside the warehouse, allowing products to be prepared without travelling to separate external facilities between storage and onward distribution.
Capabilities include blast freezing, tempering and up tempering, microwaving, x-ray and metal detection, labelling, repacking and order picking. Keeping those activities beside frozen inventory can reduce additional transport movements and handling stages when products need preparation before entering retail, foodservice or manufacturing channels.
Frozen meat and other temperature sensitive products can require controlled changes in temperature before further processing or distribution. Moving material between frozen storage, tempering, inspection and repacking creates additional scheduling and food safety requirements when each activity takes place at a different location.
Consolidating those stages at one controlled site reduces the number of physical handovers in the chain. Products can move from storage into preparation and inspection without leaving the facility before onward distribution.
Automation changes the warehouse side of the operation by reducing dependence on conventional manual pallet movements inside high density frozen storage. Cold stores are demanding working environments, and automated retrieval can separate more routine storage movements from occupied working areas while supporting denser and more systematic product flows.
The new building also substantially changes the scale of Wrexham within Thermotraffic’s UK network. Nichirei’s figures show the expanded site reaching roughly 33,150 pallet positions, compared with approximately 13,900 positions attributed to the earlier distribution centre configuration.
Temperature controlled operators have to accommodate fluctuations in food imports, manufacturing schedules and retailer stock requirements without losing control of product temperature or traceability. Extra warehouse space provides a buffer, but its commercial value depends on how quickly pallets can move through receiving, storage, retrieval and additional handling.
Thermotraffic is therefore combining more capacity with a different handling model rather than treating the project as a simple warehouse extension. The company offers customers storage, transport, ocean freight, customs services and product handling through the wider network, while Wrexham now adds a larger automated frozen hub to that chain.
The scheme was announced during construction as an extension of around 19,000 pallet spaces with increased blast freezing, tempering and other services. Completion moves those capabilities from planned capacity into operation, giving food manufacturers and retailers access to substantially more frozen storage as the site begins taking commercial volumes during October.
