Crytsal Logistics Cool Chain Ltd opens warehouse facility in Howrah

The inauguration was done in the presence of presence of Bruce Bucknell, British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata, Murari Lal Agarwal, Chairman, Crystal Logistic Cool Chain Ltd., Rajesh Agarwal, Managing Director, Naresh Agarwal, Jt. Managing Director, Gavin McGillivray, Head of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) Office in India, Varsha Purandare-MD & CEO SBICAP Markets Ltd., Uma Shanmukhi Sistla COO SBICAP Markets Ltd. , MK Sharma-CEO SBICAP Ventures Ltd., Manav Bansal, CIO, Neev Fund and other important officials on Monday.

Crystal Logistics Cool Chain Ltd. (CLCCL), a Neev Fund investee company has been instrumental in building an all Indian brand-name in the cold chain logistics sector. CLCCL has now completed the second phase of expansion at their Howrah Kolkata facility, attaining its full capacity. As the facility opens to customers, CLCCL is desirous that DFID along with Neev and SBICAPS should inaugurate their facility and celebrate this milestone.

This is reported to be the largest cold store warehouse facility under one roof in the country.

Global statistics demonstrate that India and China will double their cold storage facilities by next 5 years. Indian cold logistics supply chain has grown at the highest CAGR (43% between 2008-15) in the world, followed by China, Mexico and Brazil as per an international study.

The total value of cold chain industry in India was forecasted to reach ~USD 13 billion by 2017 through increased investments, modernization of existing facilities, and establishment of new ventures via private and government partnerships.

Crystal Logistics Cool Chain Ltd. (CLCCL) is a leader in providing cold storage facilities in India. Neev Fund’s investment in this business has helped Crystal Logistics set-up a facility having storage capacity of 11,000 Pallets at Kolkata. Further, with Neev Fund investment attracting additional capital in form of debt and equity instruments, the company has plans to expand their foot-print in other low incomes states of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar tripling their installed capacity to 32,000 pallets and enabling storage of approximately 25,000 Metric-Tonne of food. This plan is validated by the global and Indian industry growth forecasted for cold -chain logistics.

Neev Fund is a social impact fund backed by the Department for International Development of UK (previously known as UK-Aid), which infuses returnable capital into infrastructure sectors in India. The vehicle of equity infusion is through Neev Fund, which is an alternate investment fund registered in India. The Fund's intention is to create infrastructure in low incomes states of India, where the services will reach until the last mile consumer who primarily belong to socio-economically weaker factions, in-turn generating prosperity and social parity through access to services, developmental impacts and employment generation.

The Neev Fund was exploring an investment in the Indian cold chain sector, which is poised to grow at approximately 17% over the next few years, with the growth expected to be driven by a) Increase in consumption of perishable products, b) greater penetration of retail industry within the 'food & grocery' segment and c) Emergence of high growth market requiring such facilities.

The Neev team found that a meaningful partnership could be forged with the Crystal team and thus the relationship between Neev and Crystal was established.

The Neev fund believed in the following: 1) Strong macro fundamentals, with the cold storage space growing at approximately 17% per annum, 2) Crystal's strong focus on providing a 'farm to fork' cold storage solution to its customers, 3) Its deep and well entrenched relationship with existing customers and 4) The business acumen and ground level understanding of the business by its promoters and management team, which allowed them to execute very well, were among the reasons Neev invested in the company.

Kolkata was the first warehouse location that CLCCL has completed. The company has plans to build four more cold chain facilities in low income regions, in addition to their existing Warehouse in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, another low-incomestate, they have been allotted land by the industrial project development agency to set-up a warehouse within a sea-food park. This will function as a hub and spoke model, wherein CLCCL will be the only cold chain storage hub for a catchment of food processing industries in a region which is under-served with respect to food production and storage.