Magnavale has completed the expansion of its Chesterfield food storage facility, adding 25,000 pallet positions to the site.

The Midlands-based site offers warehousing for frozen, chilled and ambient storage requirements as well as a range of value-added services.

The additional pallet positions, along with the existing capacity of 44,000, bring the total pallet position capacity of the site to 69,000.

Magnavale said that this makes the facility “one of the largest cold stores in the region”, with the facility now officially open and fully operational.

Amanda Cogan, chief operating officer at Magnavale, said: “This expansion is a game-changer for food logistics in the Midlands and will enable Magnavale to offer new and existing customers the opportunity to expand their volumes and simplify their supply chain by making the most of the comprehensive portfolio of value-added services we provide at Chesterfield. Our goal continues to be reducing the cost, risk, and complexity of our customers’ supply chains.

“Magnavale Chesterfield boasts an exceptional team, and the site has long required additional capacity to facilitate our customers’ needs. We are very excited to be able to meet that requirement while supporting the local community by creating new employment opportunities.”

The project also involved a refit of plant and refrigeration equipment, which Magnavale said would “renew the site for another generation and significantly reduce carbon emissions”. It claimed that over the lifetime of the equipment, CO2 emissions “will be reduced by nearly 10,000 tonnes”.