Cold Chain & Frozen Food Industry
Summary: A major frozen food processor in East China faced twin pressures — peak-season storage overflow and prohibitive cold room expansion costs. By reconfiguring its existing cold storage with drive-in pallet racking, the company increased Pallet positions from 2,800 to 4,500 without adding a single square meter of refrigerated space — a 60% density gain — while cutting per-pallet refrigeration energy costs — all with zero new cold room construction.
Background: Cold Room at Capacity, Expansion Too Costly
The company produces frozen dumplings, hot-pot ingredients and other frozen foods with an annual output exceeding 50,000 tons. As distribution channels expanded, peak-season inventory (Q4 through Chinese New Year) climbed every year, repeatedly pushing the existing cold room into "overflow."
- Space bottleneck: The existing facility used conventional selective pallet racking. Forklift aisles consumed ~35% of the floor area, leaving space utilization at only 68%.
- Expansion dilemma: Cold storage construction is expensive — building an equivalent new cold room requires a massive investment and a 6–8 month construction window that would miss the peak-season stocking period entirely.
- Energy pressure: Refrigeration runs 24/7. Aisles are "refrigerated dead space" — low utilization means higher per-pallet energy cost.
Solution: Drive-In Racking — Storage Density From Every Square Meter
Given the client's warehouse profile — few SKUs, large batch sizes, and predictable stock rotation — we designed a customized drive-in racking system:
- High-density storage: Forklifts drive directly into the rack tunnel along the depth direction to deposit and retrieve pallets, eliminating multiple working aisles. Pallets are stored densely along the lane depth (up to 6 pallet positions per lane).
- Storage strategy: LIFO (Last-In, First-Out) lane organization matches the frozen food batch-rotation management model.
- Low-temperature adaptation: Rack frames use Q235B hot-rolled steel with shot-blast descaling and electrostatic powder coating — strength and corrosion protection engineered for continuous operation at -18°C (0°F).
- Key specifications: 9 m rack height, 4 levels, 2,000 kg design load per level; full load-stacking and seismic verification performed in compliance with ANSI MH16.1 / RMI design standards.
Implementation: 45-Day Delivery with Zero Downtime
From detailed engineering and manufacturing to on-site installation, the project was completed in just 45 days. A zone-by-zone, after-hours installation schedule allowed the cold room to keep operating normally — no disruption to daily inbound/outbound operations.
Results: What the Numbers Say
| Metric | Before (Selective Racking) | After (Drive-In Racking) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pallet positions | 2,800 | 4,500 | +60% |
| Aisle area share | 35% | 5% | -30 pts |
| Space utilization | 68% | 92% | +24 pts |
| Per-pallet refrigeration energy | Baseline | ~30% lower | -30% |
| New refrigerated area | Full new cold room required | 0 m² (existing room retrofitted) | Zero new construction |
Customer Testimonial
"The same cold room now holds 60% more product. For the first time, we didn't worry about pallet space during peak season — and the expansion budget we saved went straight into production capacity." — Warehouse Director, frozen food manufacturer
Conclusion
For the cold chain industry, every square meter of cold storage is money. Drive-in racking trades aisles for density, letting businesses nearly double storage capacity without building new cold rooms. It is the go-to solution for frozen food, dairy, and meat processors storing large volumes of a limited SKU mix.
