Unlocking growth through strategic collaboration – NewCold & Rijk Zwaan at Dinteloord

In a time of unprecedented grid constraints and tightening environmental regulations, NewCold’s new facility in Dinteloord, the Netherlands has emerged as a powerful example of innovation, resilience, and partnership.

In 2021, NewCold acquired a plot in Dinteloord with a clear objective: to establish a critical logistics hub aligned with our customer Lamb Weston. However, by mid-2022, a major obstacle emerged: TenneT, the national grid operator of The Netherlands, announced that due to severe net congestion NewCold would not be granted an energy grid connection until at least 2028, with no guaranteed timeline even in present day.

This challenge was further compounded by nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission limitations enacted from 2021 to 2024, which restricted the use of on-site power generation through conventional engines.

Fruit and vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan, our neighbor and an innovator in sustainable greenhouse cultivation, faced a similar impasse. Their planned Combined Heat and Power (CHP) installation, vital for heating their greenhouses, had no viable route to feed surplus electricity back into the overloaded public grid. This meant valuable clean energy would go to waste instead of helping the wider community.

Having already established a close relationship with Rijk Zwaan, we reengaged discussions to explore how we could collaborate and create a mutually beneficial solution.

While NewCold was moving forward with developing our Dinteloord site, we sent our plan to the municipality of Steenbergen. Rijk Zwaan was then informed that our 40-meter high-bay warehouse would be next to their land plot, blocking the sunlight needed for their glass houses.

Rijk Zwaan contacted NewCold and after discussion it was agreed that NewCold would change our site design. The high bay was mirrored to the other side of the plot, resulting in virtually no sun blockage.

The positive outcome of these discussions led to further collaboration. NewCold and Rijk Zwaan partnered closely to co-develop a private-wire solution enabling direct power transfer from Rijk Zwaan’s CHP system to NewCold’s facility. This strategic alignment created a resilient scalable solution that allowed:

• NewCold to operate on schedule and uphold its commitment to Lamb Weston, over three years ahead of what grid conditions alone would have allowed.
• Rijk Zwaan to realize their CHP investment and secure a consistent, sustainable heat supply for their greenhouses.

This collaboration not only exemplifies adaptive thinking and environmental responsibility; it stands as a model for how businesses can move forward together in the face of complex infrastructure challenges. In today’s regulatory and energy environment, neither project would have been feasible without this joint approach.

Together, NewCold and Rijk Zwaan have transformed a constraint into a catalyst, and helped establish Dinteloord as a model for what’s possible when innovation and shared purpose align.