Eichholtz, the Hamburg company specializing in the storage of such food raw materials as nuts, seeds, dried fruits and pulses, inaugurated a new refrigerated warehouse on September 23, 2016.
With the temperature-controlled 30,000-m³ shed, this long-established company is boosting its total refrigerated capacities by over 50 percent to 60,000 m³. “An energy-saving refrigeration plant makes this building one of Europe’s most state-of-the-art refrigerated warehouses. We are delighted that this will enable us to make even more storage space available to our customers. Handling sensitive foodstuffs calls for extremely high quality standards. Not only our new warehouse, but also our cutting-edge technical facilities, equip us to meet these optimally,” explains Franziska Kraupner, CEO of Eichholtz. Around 160 customers and guests attended the event at the company site on Müggenburger Strasse in the Port of Hamburg.
After construction work lasting one year, in future this will provide appropriate storage for almonds, hazel and cashew nuts, as well as pumpkin seeds from China, poppy, sunflower and Chia seeds, all used among other purposes for bread roll baking mixtures. Ambient temperature is a constant 10 -12 C°, with humidity at 65 percent, offering optimal conditions for guaranteeing the quality of the commodities, avoiding infestation by mould or insects. Stacking on mobile racks ensures optimal usage of a ceiling height of 10 metres, doubling total capacity. Digital temperature management embodying precise humidity control makes the refrigeration plant especially energy-saving and energy-efficient.
As an IFS certified full-service provider, Eichholtz, a firm run by the third generation of the family, offers not only warehousing of raw materials and non-food products, but also processing, sorting and packaging of food commodities. At Eichholtz, customers can have their materials cleansed of foreign bodies. Last year the company invested in its cleaning plant, already equipped with x-ray and other technology, and had new stone sorters and metal separators fitted.
Raw materials are transported through the separate stations of the plant by a state-of-the-art, foodstuff-compatible bucket conveyor. Weighing, sorting and re-packaging of bagged goods, or transfer from big bags into packaging of all types, are as much part of the service as transporting the goods from the container terminal into the warehouse and on to the customers. Eichholtz’s range of services also covers dealing with Customs formalities and documentation. “Since being founded in 1932 in Speicherstadt or Warehouse City as a traditional firm of quartermasters, and right up until today, we have contributed our knowhow, ‘one-stop shopping’ services and investments in technical innovations to looking after our customers. The new refrigerated hall represents the logical continuation of our claim to provide qualitatively top-grade service,” states a delighted Franziska Kraupner.
The former quartermasters of the Speicherstadt have progressed to becoming cutting-edge full-service providers for everything related to the storage and processing of food raw materials. They constitute an essential element in the added value chain of Hamburg as a universal port.