Introducing Constellation’s Next Phase of Growth – Abhy Maharaj, Chief Growth & Transformation Officer

Constellation has reached a pivotal point in its journey.

Over the past six years, our business has expanded quickly to become the third-largest logistics company in Europe, partnering with frozen food brands and distributors across nine countries. The question now is not whether we can continue to grow – but how we can do it in a way that strengthens the service that our customers rely on, rather than diluting it.

Our transformation strategy, outlined below, is designed to answer that question. It is about putting the right foundations in place to support long-term growth, while preserving the agility, local decision-making, and customer focus that sit at the heart of Constellation as a business.

As Constellation continues to scale across multiple markets, customer expectations are rising and operational complexity is increasing. Greater scale brings a growing need for consistency across our expanding network. 

Transformation is required now to ensure our systems, processes, and ways of working can support this growth without compromising the responsiveness and service quality our customers value. Over the past year, that transformation has already moved from intent to action, through targeted expansions, new market entry and deeper integration across our network.

This is not a fixed project with a defined end date. It is an ongoing transformation that will allow us to continue to evolve alongside our customers and the markets we serve. As Constellation’s Chief Growth and Transformation Officer, I wanted to take this opportunity at the start of the new year to set out what that transformation will look like in practice for our business and our customers.

Strengthening our model

Our strategy sets out a clear ambition: to be Europe’s most trusted logistics partner. For our customers, “trusted” means reliability at scale – consistent service across borders, capacity that is available when it is needed, and a partner that invests ahead of demand rather than reacting to it.

Achieving that requires more than adding space to our cold stores – though that certainly plays a part. We are strengthening how the business operates, from the systems and processes we use, to the way teams collaborate across countries and clusters. In 2025 alone, this included integrating newly acquired sites in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany into our operating model, ensuring customers experience the same standards, capabilities and service levels wherever they work with us.

Transformation, for us, means evolving the business we already have. We are building on proven strengths while investing in new capabilities that allow us to scale with control and consistency. That includes improvements across commercial and operational activity, targeted investment in technology, and groundbreaking efficiency and sustainability initiatives across our sites.  

Vitally, we are also simplifying how the business works as it grows. As Constellation scales, it will become better equipped to support customers’ long-term growth ambitions – not slower or more complex.

Expanding our capacity

At the core of Constellation’s transformation is the deliberate expansion of our physical footprint across Europe. In practical terms, that means increasing capacity where customers need it most, strengthening existing locations, and developing new facilities designed for long-term efficiency and scale.

This approach is already delivering results. In the UK, we completed the 36,000-pallet expansion of our Grimsby site, taking capacity beyond 50,000 pallet positions while improving energy efficiency and loading capability. In the Nordics, expansion and construction activity at sites including Aarhus, Tønsberg and Rollsbo/Kungälv is increasing flexible capacity for customers across Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

With the addition of our expansion in the UK and our entry into the German market, Constellation now operates well over one million pallet positions across its network. Our ambition over the next five years is to grow the business to approximately two to three times that scale, reflecting both customer demand and the pace at which we can invest responsibly.

From an asset perspective, that equates to between two and three million pallet positions. The range is intentional. Growth will be delivered through a mix of expanding existing sites, acquiring new partners, and developing major new facilities – including large-scale automated warehouses and smaller more customised warehouses – with the balance shaped by customer requirements and market opportunity. Our cold store development in Wolverhampton, for example, is designed to set a new benchmark for speed, efficiency and resilience in modern cold chain logistics.

This expansion is not only about physical capacity. It also supports stronger earnings, sustainable revenue growth, and continued investment in our people. At the same time, we are assessing exciting opportunities to enter new geographies and adjacent product segments, building on our core cold storage expertise to support a wider range of customer needs.

Building a network customers can scale with

As we continue to expand, our focus is on building a European network that customers can grow into over time. Many of our customers manufacture in one country and distribute across several others. By designing connected footprints across markets, we can reduce friction in those supply chains and support long-term growth.

Recent acquisitions, including Lau van Haren Cold Stores in the Netherlands and the Køge site in Denmark, have added specialist capabilities such as blast freezing, repacking and distribution services. These capabilities give customers more flexibility within a single, integrated network rather than relying on multiple providers.

In practice, that often means simplifying networks rather than adding complexity. In some cases, consolidating storage from multiple locations into a single, purpose-built facility can reduce transport movements, lower overall costs, and deliver sustainability benefits by taking vehicles off the road.

Investing in highly efficient sites also allows us to improve energy performance and transport efficiency at the same time. These investments are driven by customers who are growing and need additional capacity. By investing ahead of demand, we enable customers to scale without fragmenting their logistics across multiple providers.

Within existing operations, customers and our people also benefit from more efficient processes, improved tools, and systems that make it easier to work day to day. Our focus is not simply on adding capacity, but on aligning investment with our customers’ growth plans.

Connecting our business as we grow

We are improving how we connect customer relationships and operational knowledge across the business as we scale.

Many customers operate with Constellation in multiple countries, but those relationships have not always been fully connected across the network. We are changing that by taking a holistic view of each customer – linking activity across geographies so we can better support their current operations and future growth. This approach is already strengthening relationships with customers operating across Europe, creating clearer ownership and more coordinated support across borders.

In practice, this creates a more joined-up customer experience, with greater consistency in service, clearer visibility across their network, and more informed, proactive conversations based on a single, coordinated view of their operations.

We are also engaging more closely with senior customer leadership, ensuring those discussions inform local execution. Operationally, sharing product knowledge and service standards across countries helps us deliver consistent service wherever customers work with us.

Investing in the long term

Technology is central to our transformation, but flexibility remains our priority. We are investing in systems and automation that can evolve over time, ensuring our long-term assets remain competitive and responsive as customer needs and technology continue to change. This includes improving digital visibility and data across our network, enabling more informed decision-making, greater operational resilience, and a more transparent experience for customers. Alongside infrastructure investment, initiatives such as AI-powered energy optimisation trials in Denmark and Norway are already delivering early efficiency and sustainability gains.

Over the next five years, our ambition is to grow the business to two to three times its current scale while strengthening our position across Europe. For customers, this means that over the next one to two years, working with Constellation will become simpler and more predictable – with easier access to capacity, more consistent service across countries, and a partner that can support growth without disruption as their networks evolve.

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