On 1 March 1996, after years of experience in fruit imports and logistics, Rob Mulder (Cool Control) began his first activities in refrigerated storage of imported fruit at the former auction in 's-Gravenzande. Although he handed over overall management to his sons Robert and Barry in 2013, he still visits the business every day and, thirty years later, continues to oversee the internal logistics between the four adjacent cold stores that Cool Control now operates. This week, the cold storage company – with capacity for 12,000 pallet spaces divided into 52 independently controlled compartments – celebrates its 30th anniversary.
© Izak Heijboer | FreshPlaza.com
Robert, Rob, and Barry Mulder
Start at Veiling 's-Gravenzande
Robert has been involved with Cool Control from the outset, although in the first few years, he combined it with school. Barry initially worked for C. Vreugdenhil Transport and joined the family business in 2007. By then, the company had already relocated to Maasdijk. "At the auction in 's-Gravenzande, we had a large hall and refrigerated space for 200 pallets, but that quickly filled up, as demand for cold storage in the Rotterdam region proved strong. Cees Vreugdenhil invited us to move in with him. We then relocated to the Transportweg in Maasdijk, where capacity expanded to 1,152 pallet spaces divided across six temperature-controlled compartments," Robert recalls.
© Izak Heijboer | FreshPlaza.com
The first location in 's-Gravenzande
During his years at the Westland company Van Spronsen Transport, Rob handled agrologistics for, among others, Carmel Agrexco, Israel's largest fresh produce exporter, as well as exporters from South Africa shipping avocados, arranging their logistics and storage in Europe. "From that time, we gained many customers, mostly foreign grower associations, which we still work with today," says Robert.
© Izak Heijboer | FreshPlaza.com
The second location on Transportweg
Ripened avocados: From one pallet to 100,000 boxes a week
Avocados were once a small product group. "They used to arrive eight pallets at a time in 20ft containers. We imported them from South Africa. In 2009, we started ripening the first avocados for our customers, initially one pallet per week. It is remarkable how this once-exotic product has developed. Today, 100,000 boxes of avocados pass through our 36 ripening cells every week," says Barry. Mangoes are also part of Cool Control's standard ripening programme, although they never achieved the same ready-to-eat market share as avocados. Ripening products such as stone fruit and papaya never truly gained traction.
© Cool Control bv
"Our logistics service clearly met a need. For grower organisations, it was ideal to have a partner here managing logistics from A to Z. That expanded their export opportunities in the European market, as they could focus on sales while we handled the rest. That benefited us as well as several other companies. Over the years, we added more so-called value-added services, enabling us to offer a complete package. For packing and repacking work, we always hire staff, but under our own management. We have been fortunate to grow strongly alongside our customers, both in service and in product volume."
© Izak Heijboer | FreshPlaza.com
Whether storing citrus, ginger, grapes, or blueberries, Cool Control's product range is broad. "What our customers value is that we provide both requested and unsolicited advice. They expect more than storage alone. They rely on us to think along if an urgent order comes in or to advise on how to handle a batch that has deteriorated unexpectedly during transport," Barry continues. "We are not the cheapest, nor the most expensive, but quality is always our top priority. The way the end customer wants the product delivered is central in everything we do."
© Cool Control
Four locations on the same site
In 2007, Cool Control moved to its first site at the Honderdland industrial estate. In 2012, a second building was constructed directly opposite, and the old building on Transportweg was sold. At the end of 2015, an adjacent property was acquired, followed by the construction of a fourth cold store in 2021. "From a logistics standpoint, you might say that four buildings on one site is complicated. However, we handle large avocado programmes from several major grower associations that do not want their products stored together. Thanks to our four locations, we have been able to accommodate that growth in recent years, combining it with citrus, ginger, or sweet potatoes," Robert explains.
© Cool Control
Asked about the biggest challenge, he responds: "Maintaining the quality of the workforce within our operations. We now employ 120 permanent staff and a further 120 in the flexible workforce. We do everything possible to automate, introduce robotics, and optimise processes, but hands-on loading and unloading work remains essential. At the same time, the cost of temporary labour has increased sharply, by as much as 45% over five years. Customers partly understand this, but there is never a guarantee that we can carry out the work under the same conditions two years later."
© Cool Control bv
Growth in South America
The brothers look to the future with confidence. "We recently appointed a colleague responsible for sales in France and Latin America, and that is developing well. Much of our fruit originates from Latin America, where we see growth potential in the coming years. We also continue to differentiate ourselves through additional services. Anyone can offer storage, but providing a full package of customs formalities, quality control, ripening, repackaging, labelling, and transport remains a specialty.
© Cool Control
Asked how they organise their collaboration, Robert replies with a laugh: "Don't talk too much. Seriously, we do not need many words. Barry oversees transport and logistics, while I focus more on policy, personnel, and cold acquisition. We stay closely involved in operations, but we also have an excellent team capable of running the business independently, with strong professionals in import, export, warehousing, and finance."
Whether another thirty years of Cool Control lie ahead? "We have no other plans, so for now we simply intend to continue," Robert laughs. "We are no longer among the largest cold stores, but certainly not the smallest either. As a family business, we are becoming fairly unique in this sector. We prefer not to take excessive risks and have always reinvested our earnings into the next building. In that sense, even after 30 years, we remain a distinctly low-profile Westland company."
For more information:
Barry / Robert Mulder
Cool Control
Honderdland 90
2676 LS Maasdijk
Tel: +31 (0) 174-526360
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.coolcontrol.nl
