Northern Ireland’s Farm Minister Michelle O’Neill recently visited Tyrone-based Ardboe Coldstore to view the facility which has state of the art temperature controlled warehousing and logistics, servicing the food industry in Northern Ireland and further afield. The company’s services encompass product maturation, blast freezing, uptempering, processing and packing within its broad portfolio.

Recently the company completed a £5million investment programme to enhance the Ardboe site, enabling a much increased pallet holding capacity to around 20,000 spaces, all on a modern mobile racking system, affording instant pallet collection.

Ardboe Coldstore’s client list comprises a number of blue chip manufacturing and processing companies within Northern Ireland, including the dairy, meat and poultry sectors.

Eugene Carson, owner of the company, commented:  “We currently employ 50 people in one of our most economically deprived rural areas and we want to build on this for the future.  It is a given that we provide a modern and efficient IT Warehouse Management System   that enables stock visibility and total traceability to our clients.  Our unique selling point, however, is the dedication and efficiency of our staff who have total focus on customer needs.

“We operate 24/7 for 365 days each year to meet the demands of our customers and will continue to modify our operation and services as industry requires”

Speaking after her tour of the premises Michelle O’Neill said: “The recent investment that Eugene has made to his business has had a very positive impact in terms of much needed job creation in this rural area.  Businesses such as this are at the logistical heart of our agri food sector and the recent investment by the Ardboe Coldstore demonstrates the confidence for growth that is currently in this sector.”

Ardboe Coldstore is USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) approved and has full BRC (British Retail Consortium) Accreditation for all of its activities, which includes a modern GPS monitored fleet of refrigerated vehicles.”

Mr Carson continued:  “We were delighted to be able to host Minister O’Neill to show her around our company and facility and to meet the people who are Ardboe Coldstore Limited.

“We also welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate to the Minister that commercial cold stores are an essential and integral component of the food supply chain in Northern Ireland, particularly given the anticipated growth within the agri food sector as a whole.”