A United States company has broken ground on a new cold storage facility at Port Saint John.
Americold will invest around $100 million in the project, which is expected to create up to 100 new jobs.
It marks the company’s first import-export hub in Canada and its sixth cold storage facility in the country.
Officials said the facility will leverage the logistics capabilities of DP World, the port’s container terminal operator, and the rail lines of CPKC.
“The infrastructure investments by DP World and CPKC alongside Port Saint John have attracted major global shipping lines to this location,” Rob Chambers, President, Americas at Americold, said in a news release.
“We are excited that our world-class cold storage facility and value-added services will support food flows between Central and Eastern Canada, Europe, South America and APAC.”
The new facility will provide about 22,000 pallet positions, which the company said is equal to more than 800 full truckloads of temperature-sensitive goods.
Opportunities NB will invest up to $1.01 million in the form of a payroll rebate to assist Americold with the creation of the new positions.

“Cold storage and the cold supply chain are a big part of our vision on how we’re going to keep the momentum and keep growing the container volumes at the Port of Saint John,” Craig Bell Estabrooks, president and CEO of the port, previously told our newsroom.
Bell Estabrooks said a cold storage facility will benefit not only Saint John but the region as a whole by helping to create supply chain resiliency.
“We’ve learned through the pandemic and through other environmental issues and challenges related to climate change that we see a real strain on our infrastructure and a real strain on supply chain across North America, Europe and all parts of the world,” he said.
In addition, having a cold storage facility will make Port Saint John even more attractive to shipping companies, said Bell Estabrooks.
“So we really see that adding value through that supply chain resiliency and having cold storage and having optionality in rail, for example, it just enhances the whole supply chain.”
The facility will be located on the last piece of unleased land on the west side between the Crosby’s terminal and tank farm and the Bay Ferries terminal. It is expected to be operational in 2026.