Frigo Group: the logistics partner to turn to when things really need to stay cold

A tub of chips that’s fresh from the oven in the supermarket, a frozen fish fillet that arrives exactly as it was frozen, or bread that reaches the bakery retailer on time. That doesn’t happen by itself. Behind it all lies a supply chain in which the temperature must never deviate. Frigo Group has been working on that supply chain for over fifty years. In this article, you can read about what the company does, what sets it apart, and why temperature-controlled transport and full-load (FTL) transport are so important.

A family business with frozen food in its DNA

Frigo Group has been operating as a logistics service provider in the frozen food sector since 1973. Founder Hein van Elderen laid the foundations with a customer-focused approach that still serves as the guiding principle today. The company calls this the ‘Frigo philosophy’: smooth, customer-friendly, sustainable, efficient, safe, certified and no-nonsense.

Frigo Group provides storage and transport services for chilled and frozen foodstuffs. These include fish, meat, chicken, bread, vegetables, fruit, ice cream and chips. The cold stores are located in Nieuw-Vennep and ‘s-Heerenberg. Transport operations are managed from Geldermalsen. The cold store in Nieuw-Vennep alone has capacity for 22,000 pallets.

Quality you can verify

When it comes to frozen goods, you cannot leave anything to chance. That is why Frigo Group holds, amongst other things, IFS Logistics and Skal certification. In addition, the company holds a customs licence (Entrepot C) and licences for meat. The temperature in the storage facility is monitored day and night. In the event of a fault, the technical support team is on hand 24/7. Cameras are installed at the docks and lorries are weighed on arrival and departure to ensure error-free delivery. Furthermore, the cold stores are inspected quarterly by the NVWA.

Our in-house warehouse management system exchanges order and stock data with customers via EDI. In addition, Frigo Group handles order picking, stock receipt and dispatch, container handling, freezing and customs clearance. So you get a complete package.

Temperature-controlled transport: keeping the cold chain intact

Storage is only half the battle. As soon as the goods leave the cold store, the next challenge begins. In temperature-controlled transport, the cargo is transported at a pre-set temperature, from the loading bay to the unloading point. For deep-frozen products, this is usually -20 °C or lower. Chilled products are transported at a higher, but still strictly controlled, temperature.

Frigo Group handles this transport both for customers who store goods in their own cold stores and for external clients. The company operates daily within the Benelux and to Germany and France. It has specialised in Spain and Portugal, employing Spanish-speaking dispatchers. By consolidating freight flows from different customers through groupage, transport costs can be reduced. For its transport operations, Frigo Group also works with carefully selected regular partners. These must comply with legal requirements and with the company’s own, often stricter, standards.

Technology plays a major role in this. Using on-board computers and tracking systems, planners can see where each lorry is and how much longer a driver is permitted to drive. Customers can automatically receive a notification before the driver arrives.

FTL transport: a whole lorry for your load

FTL stands for Full Truck Load. This means that a single customer uses the entire lorry. With LTL (Less Than Truck Load), several customers share the load space.

FTL transport offers clear advantages for refrigerated and frozen transport:

• Quality: the temperature can be tailored to a single specific load, with fewer fluctuations.
• Speed: there are no stop-offs for other consignments, so your load reaches its destination sooner.
• Lower risk of damage: the load is not combined with other consignments.

That is why FTL is particularly suitable for goods that are in high demand and need to reach the customer quickly. Is a consignment too small to fill a whole lorry? In that case, Frigo Group offers LTL and groupage as alternatives. These services are available for frozen, chilled and non-temperature-controlled transport, with a focus on the Benelux, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary and Switzerland.