Sivafrost’s core business is the packaging and temporary storage of frozen products of all kinds. To this end, the company has invested in automated packaging lines as well as in innovative logistics solutions and auxiliary services over the past decades. Sivafrost has also obtained certification to improve quality and invested in sustainable energy production to do even more for the environment. The company employs about 60 people and is a logistics partner for approximately 70 customers, including major players like Colruyt, Dira, Godiva, HerbaFrost, McCain and Mora.

Sivafrost is a crucial link in the supply chain for more and more manufacturers and retailers. In order to be able to offer even more customers higher added value in the coming decades, a strategic master plan has been drawn up for the exploitation of growth opportunities. “Just like other companies, we have to constantly deal with opportunities and risks,” Stijn Siongers, owner and CEO of the company, said. “Naturally, you can also generate growth opportunities yourself, not only by increasing business activities, but also by winning more customers. The risks, in turn, depend on market conditions, which include room for expansion and a growing shortage of logistics staff.”    

An important part of Sivafrost’s master plan for the exploitation of growth opportunities is the sustainable expansion of its deep-freeze storage capacity. “Just a few years ago, we installed a wind turbine on our company premises to complement our existing solar park,” Siongers added. “With these two sustainable energy generation plants, we can generate practically 80 % of the energy we use ourselves. The wind turbine and the space required for maintenance also limit our expansion options though. But thanks to Dematic’s advice, we were able to double our capacity with a fully automated deep-freeze high-bay storage unit. Now we no longer have to turn down customers who want to temporarily store dozens of pallets at Sivafrost.”

Since Sivafrost also repackages bulk packaging with frozen products for the retail trade, the existing buildings had to be connected to the new deep-freeze storage unit. “Looking back, we chose Dematic for this investment project because Dematic was able to recommend and deliver the best solution for our capacity expansion,” Siongers concluded. “This solution includes four fully automatic storage and retrieval machines as well as some conveyor systems and pallet lifts. They are connected to our new building is via a tunnel with a conveyor system and several pallet lifts. Dematic is a specialist in doubling the capacity in the available space. For this purpose, the six loading docks located below the building were arranged diagonally, among other things.”  

Another reason for Sivafrost to choose Dematic is their knowledge and experience in supplying and automating deep-freeze storage equipment. “For our company, this is a strategic investment that will secure our future activities,” Siongers said emphatically. “That is why we prefer to work with a supplier with proven practical experience and a good reputation in the service industry. For this reason we visited reference customers including Agristo, which is a customer of Dematic as well as our company. In addition to a considerable increase in capacity, the new automated deep-freeze storage unit also offers new opportunities to improve our logistics processes. It also reduces our dependence on personnel who want to work in a deep-freeze storage unit at all.” 

From a logistics perspective, the new deep-freeze storage unit also helps Sivafrost to further improve the quality of its service to customers. “By opting for complete automation, we also reduce the risks of errors and transport damage,” owner and CEO Stijn Siongers said. “For example, we put each incoming customer pallet on its own pallet, which is dimensionally accurate and extremely stable in order to compensate for qualitative differences in customer pallets. Dematic recommended and supplied us with a solution that allows all pallets to be placed on and removed from circulation pallets to prevent conveyor and elevator malfunctions.     

Finally, Sivafrost has had additional control equipment installed in order to track all pallets of frozen products more accurately. “High-precision traceability is an added value that is increasingly gaining in importance for logistics service providers,” Siongers said. “We have doubled the number of integrated control functions to check the contour and height of each pallet. These functions have been supplemented by some registration stations that scan the pallet barcodes. All registration processes are automatically recorded by our ERP system. Thanks to the additional scan data, we now even have a more reliable real-time view of our frozen food stock and the status of all customer orders.”