Can Bristol seize the day?

alking through a vast empty warehouse in Bristol Port’s Fresh Produce Terminal, you can see a state-of-the-art facility ready for action. It might not be stacked high of pallets teeming with fresh produce today, but the message is clear: Bristol is open and looking for business. “We could be up and running tomorrow,” says Jonathan Mordaunt, commercial executive at Bristol Port Company, before launching in to a detailed account of how the building is run.

Earlier we saw a ship stationed in the dock, all backing the overall message that this is a city positioning itself to become a major hub for the fresh produce industry in this country.

Bristol’s location is ideal for serving the main supermarket regional distribution centres as it is on average 40 miles closer to them than any other major port.

And there is opportunity in the travails of others - with the closure of Liverpool Produce Terminal and the well-documented issues at Sheerness, the port is well placed to step in and service a range of companies looking to ship and store their products, not least in the Fresh Produce Terminal in Avonmouth, complete with a cool store built at a cost of £14 million.

The terminal opened in 2003 and in 2006 phase two was completed, giving a total of 14,500 pallet spaces in 20 chambers, each capable of being independently temperature-controlled from -1°C to +11°C.

The logistics in the terminal are carefully planned so that palletised cargo is moved directly from the ship to a temperature-controlled reception area, where products are scanned into the computer system. Using radio data terminals and real-time graphical displays, the system tracks the location and status of each pallet until it is redelivered.

But the cool store is not the only facility the port boasts - there is also the Continental Juice Terminal, which provides storage and distribution of orange juice concentrate, mainly from Brazil. The juice is pumped the short distance to the storage terminal, by pipeline, from Berth 3 in the oil basin. It is then distributed by road tanker to juice packers. The terminal distributes a large portion of the UK’s total juice supply.

Clearly the goal is to increase the level of distribution to other markets, and to that end the port is constantly looking at growth and modernisation, ensuring it is well equipped for the 21st century, while protecting its heritage.

The history of Bristol Port dates back to Roman times. The original Avonmouth Dock opened in 1877 and Royal Portbury Dock, which boasts the largest lock gates in Europe, opened a century later. In 1991 The Bristol Port Company was created when private investors bought the docks. Since then some £450m has been invested to create adequate facilities for increasingly larger ships.

Now plans are being developed to build a £600m deep sea container terminal at Avonmouth to be able to accommodate the biggest ships in the world and in doing so securing the future of the port for decades to come. If this proves successful, it would give Bristol huge impetus to lay claim to be the country’s most important port for the fresh produce industry.

There are, of course, a few other factors underlining the strength of the local market - not least the city’s Wholesale Fruit Centre and the Tesco Distribution Centre near Avonmouth.

The new 483,000 sq ft regional fresh food depot at Pilning, right next to the new Severn Bridge, brought 750 jobs when it opened in 2010.

It all adds to Bristol’s momentum. Nigel Jenney, CEO of the Fresh Produce Consortium, said: “Both the port of Bristol and Bristol Market are ideally located to provide a cost-efficient distribution service to the whole of the South West and the West of the country, as well as being able to manage the fresh produce imports from both Europe and the rest of the world. The industry is keen to develop more regional fresh produce hubs and it’s therefore essential that the major shipping lines recognise the needs of their customers, and in particular the fresh produce sector.”

The Co-operative Group is also due to open a £20 million, 435,750 sq ft regional distribution centre in Avonmouth this year, which will employ around 900 staff and supply hundreds of Co-operative stores in Bristol, north Somerset and south Wales.

The new depot, which is located near to junction 18 on the M5, will take on the work of a number of existing smaller depots in the region. Staff at The Co-operatives’s depots at Chelston and Portbury will be offered the opportunity to transfer to Avonmouth, and the retailer hopes that as many as possible will do so.

Mark Leonard, The Co-operative Group’s regional head of logistics, said: “The new distribution centre in Avonmouth will provide a state-of-the-art facility that will help us provide a first-class service to our enlarged store estate for many years to come.”

Around 450 Co-operative stores in the South West and south Wales regions will be serviced with chilled, milk, ambient and frozen products. When fully operational, it will have the capacity to deliver around 1.4 million cases per week. It will also incorporate the highest standards of energy efficiency and is expected to achieve an “excellent” BREEAM rating.

Leonard added: “Avonmouth is an excellent location to serve our stores in the South West and south Wales. It will provide major employment, as well as boost the local economy.”-