AGRO Merchants Group, Alpharetta, Ga., began the expansion of Gestion Frio Algeciras (GFA) located inside the Port of Algeciras, Spain. The additional 10,000 pallet positions will increase capacity to support existing customers and allow the company to diversify further on temperature-controlled food products and services.

GFA specializes in the fresh and frozen logistics sector, providing a range of services, including transport, inspections, warehousing, picking and other value-added services.

“We will now have an opportunity to meet the demand of our clients,” says Javier Rueda, managing director of GFA. “In addition to increasing space to handle refrigerated and frozen food commodities, we plan to benefit from AGRO’s experience in providing large-scale re-packing operations. The expansion will also provide the necessary capacity to handle larger volumes of frozen commodities. We will support food producers, retailers and traders to reduce transit times by using the Port of Algeciras and GFA as a direct entry point to market.”

“This expansion was planned since December 2013 when we acquired GFA,” adds Carlos Rodriguez, partner and president of AGRO Merchants Europe. “The larger and modern infrastructure will allow us to offer more comprehensive solutions in combination with other company locations in Europe, North and South America and future locations in the Middle East and Africa. AGRO Merchants Group’s strategy also includes adding additional locations in Spain in the near future.”

The GFA expansion fulfills a demand from clients for order picking and re-packing in addition to the crossdocking and storage services already provided. The new 8,500-sqm building will also comprise of two frozen, two dual temperature and five chilled rooms, refrigerated dock areas and 18 loading doors. The expansion will be completed in May 2016.