Reporter

ABOITIZ-controlled logistics company, 2Go, is targeting small- and medium-sized companies for its cold chain service, which took several years to launch.

Sabin Aboitiz, the company’s president and chief executive in a media launch on Friday, said the company plans to help small farmers and fisherfolk in the provinces to connect with the market in Manila or other centers in the country.

2Go expects turnover to reach between P5 billion to P6 billion for the new service.

“We will have a better idea of the market in six-months’ time,” Aboitiz said, although he admitted that he still does not know how the market will accept this kind of service.

2Go is part of the Aboitiz Transport System Corp’s logistics group, which contributes roughly P1.2 billion of the P11 billion in annual revenues reported by the publicly-listed company.  

With the new cold chain service, 2Go can ship a minimum requirement of 0.5 cubic meter of refrigerated cargo anywhere in the country. Normally, transport firms want this kind of cargo to fill up one container-load before being accepted for shipment.

This kind of supply chain service ventures into the movement of temperature-controlled cargo. Cold chains are common in the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries and also some chemical shipments.

“Through 2Go Cold Chain, farmers and businessmen can now ship smaller volumes of their products, regardless of seasonality, as frequently as they require without having to worry about building up inventory to fill a truck or container,” Aboitiz said.

The company has been planning to launch the service for several years now, but they were worried on how will the market accept it.

In October last year, 2Go piloted the program with the Department of Agriculture’s Barangay Food Terminal project, which enabled the Aboitiz firm to tap industry players such as meat processor Mekeni Food Corp.; ice cream makers Creamline Dairy Corp. and Fruits In Ice Cream; baker BreadTalk; among others.

Earlier this year, 2Go announced they will be increasing the capacity of its supply chain hub in Pasig to 30,000 pallets by the end of the 2008, or more than four times its current capacity of 6,500 pallet positions.

“We will continue to expand our supply chain facilities as we believe that there is so much growth opportunities in the supply chain industry, particularly here in the Philippines,” Aboitiz said.

“Our main focus now is to further develop our supply chain management nationwide as it already made 2Go a complete logistics solutions provider.”.

ABOITIZ-controlled logistics company, 2Go, is targeting small- and medium-sized companies for its cold chain service, which took several years to launch.

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