Dutch Warehousing Provider NewCold Starts Second Phase in Henry County 

The wow factor of its initial building was enough to woo the king and queen of the Netherlands, but since putting down roots in metro Atlanta, NewCold has always had larger — and chillier — ambitions for its local outpost. 

The Dutch warehouse provider opened its first building in 2024, with King Willem-Alexander unveiling Pallet No. 1 and setting the highly automated facility in motion with the push of a button during a grand opening event.

At the time, NewCold had installed 85,000 pallet positions — its preferred measurement to square feet — but the “home game” had yet to begin, executives told reporters at the time. 

As its name suggests, the company specializes in temperature-controlled storage, using signature high-bay warehouses, tightly packed and highly automated, to retain cold air at rates it claims can make its facilities up to 50 percent more efficient than competitors. 

“We can actually leverage the temperature of the pallet that comes into our facility to keep the freezer cool,” Rick Bake, business development director for North America, told a Global Atlanta audience last June at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. 

With the new project, set to be completed this summer, NewCold is set to offer the service envisioned when betting on European-style food storage in the Southeast U.S. Though planned from the get-go, a spokeperson said the new investment comes on top of the $333 million spent during the first phase.

“By bringing frozen and ambient capabilities together in McDonough, we’re creating a flexible, multi-temperature logistics hub designed to support our partners today while future-proofing their supply chains for what’s next,” Mike Shawgo, NewCold president of North America. 

Clients like Conagra have led to a rapid increase in demand for U.S. warehouse space, executives said, in part due to COVID-era supply shocks. 

For those familiar with the industry, the “wow factor” at NewCold comes just after walking through the doors, Mr. Bake said at the Global Atlanta event.  

Entrants are greeted with conveyors feeding pallets to a monorail that moves them effortlessly throughout the high-tech warehouse. Once stored in the 150-foot-tall freezer, they enter “completely unmanned spaces” where retrieval is done by smart cranes. 

That allows NewCold to focus recruitment less on manual labor and more on positions that focus on specialized technology skills or maintenance capabilities, in addition to office work. 

More than 200 employees have been hired already at the Atlanta facility, outpacing the 170 promised in the 2022 announcement, and 50 more will be brought in with Phase 2. 

That’s considerably fewer than some other big fulfillment centers, some of which have shuttered, but NewCold would rather lean into “mortgage-paying jobs,” company leaders have said. 

Either way, community leaders have welcomed the activity from the state’s largest Dutch investment, which a company

“We are pleased to welcome NewCold’s second project in Henry County. The extension of its existing facility is a milestone for the company, representing a meaningful financial investment and community impact,” said Sharon K. Hill, executive director of the Henry County Development Authority. “We congratulate NewCold and look forward to its continued success as one of our valued community partners.”

The second phase will add 125,000 pallet positions, bringing the total across the two facilities to more than 200,000.