Business Centre Treeport, located near the Belgian border at Hazeldonk along the A16 motorway, offers the tree nursery industry a wide range of facilities. One of these is a cold store. Centrally located between the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, this is an ideal location for producers, traders, importers and exporters, growers and nurseries to safely store and cool their products. BCT Treehub Cold Store has been operational since February 2022. GGP.News spoke with director Chantal van Kuyck.

“Forest and hedging plants, as well as fruit plants and in fact all other tree nursery products, are vulnerable products that require careful handling. And that happens to be exactly our speciality,” says Van Kuyck. “We have 25 individually adjustable cold rooms, providing a total of 50,000 m³ of conditioned space, as well as another 11,500 m² of unconditioned storage. The cold store is equipped with state-of-the-art climate control and experienced refrigeration specialists. Each room can be set to specific cooling and storage conditions. Some of the rooms also feature misting systems and humidity control. All types of packaging can be accommodated, from CC trolleys to (box) pallets stored in racking systems up to 11 metres high.”

Added value for customers
Attracting customers is one thing; retaining them is at least as important. Chantal van Kuyck: “Not only is our Cold Store technically advanced, but our service is equally important. We see it as our responsibility to add value to the process and the quality of the cooling. We take care of everything for the customer: transport, inbound and outbound handling, general handling and the cooling process. Products can be called off flexibly, allowing our customers to deliver to their buyers at the right time or have the products returned to their own location. We are fully committed to taking good care of the product. Throughout this entire process, openness and flexibility are important core values. Customers can always visit to view, measure and inspect their stock. But of course, they are also very welcome simply to catch up and have a cup of coffee.”

Van Kuyck also points to the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and cooling software, which have been customised to closely monitor stock, conditions and movements. “This allows us to proactively provide our customers with updates on what is in storage and its current status,” says Van Kuyck. “We are happy to talk to our customers about their specific requirements. That is why we have also established a cooling committee. This committee includes customers representing all product types. They exchange knowledge and experiences and contribute ideas for improving processes and conducting research.”

Sustainability
BCT also attaches great importance to sustainable business practices. The company has a CO₂ refrigeration system, solar panels on the roof, sustainable insulation and motion-controlled LED lighting. However, its main focus is on using accumulated knowledge and measurements to make the entire cooling process more energy-efficient.

Certification
Certification is one of the assurances customers require, and this has also been taken care of. In 2024, the Cold Store was awarded its ISO 22000 certificate at the trade fair, and a year later it obtained NVWA cold store approval for the storage of animal products. It is also an inspection location for the KCB and NVWA. These additions allow the facility’s capacity to be used throughout the year. Most tree nursery products and fruit plants are not cooled year-round, leaving capacity available for other types of storage.

“That is why we also wanted to obtain the necessary approvals to store food and animal products. Incidentally, we are also conducting a trial involving the storage of tree nursery products under refrigeration for more than a year, and the initial results are very promising.”

BCT is much more than just a cold store
Chantal van Kuyck: “If required, we can arrange for our customers’ products to be inspected, consolidated and prepared for transport, both locally and internationally. Thanks to our partners at BCT, we are also able to organise all handling and forwarding activities. Bringing together different service providers in our distribution centre and on the BCT site makes us extremely flexible. This also enables us to store customs goods and provide a complete service to customers both within and outside the tree nursery sector. At the GrootGroenPlus trade fair, which will take place from 30 September to 2 October, we will be happy to showcase all these possibilities.”