Dutch cold chain logistics operator NewCold is preparing the construction of a fully automated cold storage facility at Ștefăneștii de Jos, in Ilfov County, north of Bucharest. The project, previously announced by Profit.ro, has a capacity of 75,000 pallets and is presented as the first fully automated cold storage facility in Romania. The investment aims to consolidate the company's presence in Romania and in Central and Southeast Europe over the long term, in a market where demand for temperature-controlled storage space is growing alongside the development of food retail.
NewCold's current facility in Romania has a capacity of 6,400 pallets and operates with manual processes. After the expansion, capacity will increase more than elevenfold, and the new hub will serve food producers, retailers and distributors in the country and across the region. The services included are labelling, secondary packaging, order picking and cross-docking, meaning the direct transfer of goods between trucks without intermediate storage. The site of approximately nine hectares, located near the A0 motorway, was acquired by the company in 2024 from the developer WDP. The location offers rapid access to the road network connecting the capital with the rest of the country, an important advantage for the distribution of perishable food, which depends on fast deliveries and an uninterrupted cold chain.
The project's financing is structured through several institutions. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Banca Comercială Română (BCR) each contribute approximately 182.8 million lei, the equivalent of around 36 million euros for the Romanian bank. The EBRD also benefits from a partial guarantee from the European Union's InvestEU programme, an instrument through which the Union encourages private investment in the economies of its neighbourhood. Total financing could reach 695.6 million lei for the first two phases of the project, and a further expansion is not ruled out. Operations at the warehouse are expected to begin in early 2027.
From a technical standpoint, the project is designed to reduce energy intensity by approximately 50% compared with conventional cold storage facilities. Energy efficiency is particularly important for cold storage, where maintaining low temperatures consumes large amounts of electricity throughout the year. NewCold, founded in 2012, specialises in temperature-controlled food logistics and operates as an automated cold storage operator on a global scale. For the Dutch company, Ștefăneștii de Jos represents an important step in its regional expansion strategy, not an isolated project in Romania.
Separately, the Indian company Big Bags International (BBI) has entered the Romanian market. The local unit was registered in April 2026 in Botoșani, with share capital of 5,000 lei, and its sole shareholder is the parent company in India. BBI produces large flexible bags used in industry for transporting and storing bulk materials. The value of the investment, the plant's capacity and the number of employees have not been made public, so the real scale of the project remains unknown for now.