On Thursday, July 18, Thai Union officially opened its new, 8,000-metric-ton cold store for its Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC) factory. Located in Tema near PFC’s manufacturing plant, the cold store will ensure year-round temperature-controlled storage of Atlantic tuna for the factory, further strengthening the resilience of its supply chain and Thai Union’s manufacturing footprint.
The cold store with its four storage halls and sorting and sizing facility is already in full operation. The USD 14 million investment will enable Thai Union and PFC to load their factory with the necessary volumes to produce throughout the year by vertically integrating and streamlining its supply chain, therefore improving the factory’s performance and yield.
Johnny Ladouce, Plant Director for PFC, said: “Thanks to our new cold store we will cut traffic and CO2 emissions while ensuring we can produce throughout the year and independent of fluctuating fish supply. We are committed to Ghana and the communities we operate in by providing both direct and indirect jobs here in Tema.”
Thiraphong Chansiri, President and CEO of Thai Union Group, said: “Our PFC factory plays a vital role for our brands across Europe and the U.S. This investment will further improve our supply security and competitiveness serving our customers. The next investments into PFC will be delivering towards our SeaChange® 2030 sustainability plan, such as further lowering their emissions by installing solar panels and implementing measures to minimize waste to landfill, water discharge, and food loss.”
The cold store replaces PFC’s previous solution of using rented cold storage spaces scattered across the city. This new system allows the company to save on rental costs, reduce the number of truck trips needed to transport raw products between facilities, and maintain full control over product quality, as everything is processed in-house from storage to shipment, thereby further enhancing PFC’s competitiveness.
Operating since 1973 and acquired by Thai Union in 2010, PFC is the Group’s second-largest factory in Africa and employs approximately 1,100 people. PFC manufactures products for the Group’s market-leading international brands such as John West (no. 1 in the UK and in the Netherlands), Petit Navire (no. 1 in France), MareBlu (no. 2 in Italy), private-label customers across Europe – and the factory’s own market leader and the epitome of ambient tuna in Ghana, Starkist.
