"We process over 75 million kilo of air freight annually"

The processor of incoming air freight, IPHandlers, is mainly focused on the flower sector. In recent years, however, they have been expanding more and more and are gaining increasing numbers of customers in the fruit and vegetable sector. René Baan of IPHandlers: "We notice we are gaining customers from the fruit and vegetable sector. At the moment the fruit and vegetable volume is a quarter of the total turnover of our company and this share is still growing. In 2017 we processed over 75 million kg of freight, of which 10 million kg fruit and vegetables. We hope to increase our brand awareness within this sector with our participation in the Fruit Logistica."

IPHandlers is a young and strongly growing company, which has only been around for the last five years. In mid August the company started the construction of their fourth vacuum cooler. "Due to our specialisation in fresh products building a new vacuum cooler was a logical step to be able to continue to grow. This new vacuum cooler was taken into use at the end of December. That was quite difficult as the current wiring couldn't handle this energy usage. Thankfully this problem was solved by laying new cables."

"Most products that we process come from South America and Africa. It often happens that the products aren't chilled during loading, which causes the product to heat up. The product hardly cools during the flight and with our vacuum cooler we ensure that the products are cooled to the core to 2 degrees within 20 to 25 minutes after the flight. The pressure in the space is lower with a vacuum cooler, which causes evaporation on the product. This allows us to cool 50 tonnes of fresh products per hour. A lot of beans, green asparagus and fresh herbs are cooled by vacuum. Not all products are suitable for vacuum cooling, and this is why we also have warm cells for products that can't be cooled," continues René.

The economy is pulling up, joblessness is decreasing and consumers are spending more money. "We notice this well. We see more luxury products are being imported. Years ago there weren't as many pineapples flown in and with the economy pulling up we see this change too. We also see that consumers have increasingly strict demands for a high value product. To be able to keep the quality of the products high, our people ensure a quick through flow 24/7. We're only closed on New Years Day."

IPHandlers still has a number of challenges for this year. Schiphol is one of the biggest airports in Europe, but has it maximum amount of slots at the moment. "There are no more opportunities for Schiphol to expand at the moment, that makes it more difficult for us to realise growth. Schiphol wants to encourage passengers to fly through alternative airports so that there is more space for air freight. Besides the airport we also deal with sea containers for our customers," concludes René.

IPHandlers can be found at Fruit Logistica in Hall 26 stand C21.

E: info@iphandlers.nl

W: www.iphandlers.nl