Logistics firm launches cold chain facility

CEBU, Philippines —  Chiongbian-led Fast Logistics Group to spend P2 billion in the next two years to address the rising demand for cold chain hubs across the Philippines.

Group President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) William B. Chiongbian II announced yesterday following the opening of its first intelligent cold storage facility in Consolacion, in the northern part of Cebu.

 In a virtual press briefing held yesterday, Chiongbian bared that aside from the establishment of the Cebu intelligent cold storage, and Cavite hub, alongside the official launching of its Fresh by FAST brand, the company is looking at opening more cold chain facilities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Chiongbian mentioned that within the next 2 years, one to two more cold chain facilities will be opened in Luzon, two in Mindanao and one in Western Visayas and one in Eastern Visayas.

The newly opened FAST’s North Cebu hub is the Philippines’ fist intelligent cold chain facility in the country. It makes use of sensors and new technologies that are also being used in intelligent buildings. The cold storage facility is equipped with temperature and humidity sensors that are capable of mobile- and web-based monitoring, offering real-time visibility 24/7 to customers from the comfort of their own homes or offices.

The operations in the Cebu hub runs on the same warehouse management systems as Asia’s largest warehouses.

The robust systems also allow the hubs to be flexible to customers’ needs, as it can charge per pallet per day, making it ideal for business requirements of all sizes. It has packaged cold chain solutions into sachets, allowing FAST to serve SMEs.

The company invested at least half a billion for the establishment of Cebu and Cavite cold chain facilities, Chiongbian said.

With the two new hubs open, FAST’s footprint in the cold chain industry is now at 30,000 pallets.

Meanwhile, amid the higher demand for specialized logistics facilities and services, the country’s leading group in the end-to-end supply chain is expanding its presence in cold chain solutions with the launch of Fresh byFAST--a new generation of temperature-controlled logistics solutions built on FAST’s track record of managing the country’s largest warehouse footprint and largest modern transport fleet.

Fast Fresh offers an integration of refrigerated transport, cold storage for frozen and chilled temperatures, value-added services such as blast freezing, meat processing, packaging, and even dry warehousing for related items that do not require refrigeration.

“Our new-generation cold chain solutions are integrated, intelligent, and flexible, specifically designed to better help companies navigate the evolving supply and demand logistical challenges in the new normal and beyond,” said Chiongbian

Founded by the Chiongbian Family in the 1970s, Fast has a workforce of over 11,000, spread across 53 branches nationwide, over a million square meters in warehouse footprint, and a distribution network of close to 90,000 stores.