American food company Conagra Brands has expanded its partnership with Dutch cold chain logistics company NewCold for the construction of a new large-scale automated cold store facility in Lebanon, Indianapolis.

Being built with a $150m investment, the new facility will be one of the largest in the US and is expected to generate nearly 200 employment opportunities in the region.

Conagra Brands Supply Chain senior vice-president and chief transformation officer Craig Weiss said: “At Conagra Brands, we’re modernising our distribution network infrastructure as part of our overall supply chain strategy.

“We’re partnering with NewCold to develop a new, state-of-the-art distribution centre that will support our growing frozen business so we can better meet the needs of our customers and consumers.”

With a capacity to hold more than 100,000 pallet positions, the Lebanon site will be NewCold’s third facility in the US.

NewCold intends to begin site mobilisation and construction activities in the coming weeks.

The Indianapolis cold storage facility will feature automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) to automatically move and store products in the ‘dark’ high-bay warehouse.

The facility is expected to come online in 2022.

NewCold founder and CEO Bram Hage said: “It is very pleasing to see our continued growth in North America as we seek to build a long-term strategic relationship with Conagra, built on mutual trust.

“Our robust global pipeline includes the delivery of at least six new capital projects, as we continue to develop multiple large-scale automated facilities across Europe, Australia and North America. This momentum confirms a very positive future for customers and an innovation boost for the industry.”