Constellation’s Journey Through 2024 and Ambitions for 2025 – Carlos Rodriguez, CEO

As Constellation Cold Logistics ventures into 2025, we do so from a position of strength, built on a year of transformational progress. 2024 was a defining moment in our journey – one where we combined the entrepreneurial drive that underpins our origins with all of the advantages that come with the scale and infrastructure of a leading logistics network.

Continuing to serve our customers better than ever before remains our priority, underpinned by new investments, strategic growth, and a focus on seamless service. Here are the foundations that we laid in 2024, and what our customers can look forward to in 2025.

2024: A Year of Transformational Growth

2024 has been the most important year in the life of Constellation Cold Logistics to date. We have completed a major transition – moving from a number of independent family-owned businesses to a fully integrated organisation. 

At the heart of this transformation are our core values: “Trust”, “Excellence”, “Entrepreneurship”, and operating as “One Team” across our pan-European network. This year, we have truly lived up to these principles, reinforcing a solid foundation for the future. We are on the right path, ensuring that our customers continue to receive the highest levels of service and reliability.

2024 saw Constellation undergo an exciting change in ownership. While our previous majority shareholder, Arcus Infrastructure Partners, remains a valued shareholder, the acquisition of Constellation by EQT has unlocked significant capital for new projects. This partnership strengthens our ability to invest in strategic expansions and enhance our capabilities. EQT’s network provides access to outstanding professionals, expertise and technology.

Growth has been a defining theme throughout the year. Early in 2024, we successfully integrated two Irish acquisitions from late 2023, strengthening our presence in the region. In December, Constellation’s acquisition of CGI Cold Stores further expanded our operations in Ireland, complemented by significant investment to improve our existing infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, the acquisition of Agri-Norcold in Denmark has reinforced our position in the Nordic region, allowing us to serve our customers more effectively throughout northern Europe. Our 18,500-pallet expansion in Nijkerk in the Netherlands has also continued, ensuring we meet the growing demands of our clients.

Beyond acquisitions, we continue to attract the best talent, bringing in top-class resources from multiple industries, including from major competitors. This investment in people has been instrumental, and will continue in order to deliver better service, more efficiency, and greater reliability for our customers. Ultimately, all of our growth initiatives are designed to improve the customer experience – ensuring seamless, high-quality service while maintaining our commitment to excellence.

2025: Our Ambitions for This Year

As we move into 2025, our focus shifts towards further improving our customer service, strategic expansion, growing our existing facilities and strengthening our operations.

Elevating Customer Service  and Innovation

Service excellence remains our top priority. In 2025, we will continue to innovate, offering high quality, bespoke solutions for our customers while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability. We are enhancing our ability to serve pan-European customers in a more seamless way, ensuring they receive consistent, high-quality service across multiple countries.

We are also investing in advanced technologies, including plate freezing and automation. Wolverhampton will see further automation developments, and we plan to implement similar advancements in Belgium. These innovations will not only improve operational efficiency but also enhance the reliability and speed of our service.

Expansion into New Markets

Our ambition for 2025 includes entering two new European markets, strengthening our position as a pan-European leader. This expansion will be carefully executed, ensuring we maintain our commitment to delivering high-quality and more connected service for our customers, rather than simply increasing our scale.

Growing Existing Facilities

In addition to entering new markets, we are prioritising the expansion of our existing sites to better serve the customers who depend upon them and enabling them to grow alongside us. This includes major developments including a 49,000-pallet expansion in Grimsby and expanding our site in Wolverhampton, with additional projects under consideration. These expansions highlight our approach to growth – not just acquiring new businesses, but enhancing our current infrastructure to better serve our customers.

Strengthening Our Operations

Following the foundational work of 2024, 2025 will be about refining our structure and processes to even further improve our service for our customers. We aim to become a more analytical, digital and data-driven company, improving efficiency and capacity across our network. Our focus is on seamless integration, ensuring that we operate as a unified, systems-focused and sophisticated organisation.

Constellation’s Future 

At Constellation, we are not striving to be the biggest – we are striving to be the best. Our growth and expansion are entirely driven by our commitment to providing outstanding service across Europe. 

With a strong foundation in place, 2025 will be a year of refinement, innovation, and operational excellence. We will push the boundaries of service, invest in people, systems, cutting-edge technology, and enhance the service we provide. Our vision is clear: to lead with quality, set new industry standards, and ensure that every move we make strengthens our commitment to our customers.

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