Magsaysay Shipping and Logistics (MSL), a unit of the Magsaysay Group of Companies, has formally inaugurated its four-hectare dry and cold chain facility in Taguig, MSL’s first owned and operated warehouse.
Magsaysay group president and chief executive officer Doris Magsaysay-Ho, in a speech during the inauguration on March 16, said the MSL Logistics Hub is the group’s offer of “a real supply chain solution” to its customers.
She said it also aims to address new supply-chain challenges brought on by urbanization, and the changing requirements of having to bring smaller shipments directly to small stores from the warehouse. Previously the practice was shipping from the warehouse to the clients (such as malls and groceries) to the small stores.
MSL president and CEO Ian Clifford Claxton, in an interview with PortCalls on the sidelines of the inauguration, said they chose Taguig as it is outside the truck ban zones and thus they can conduct uninterrupted deliveries to and from the hub, where operations are 24/7.
He added that the location “works for Manila harbor as well as for Batangas (port),” and is near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for delivering airfreight.
The hub’s dry storage has a selective racking system with 9,566 palette positions and 11 inbound dry loading docks. Completed early last year, the dry storage is already 116% full, mostly of electronic products.
Its cold storage, on the other hand, has double-deep racking system with 10,661 palette positions and 17 inbound dry loading docks.
The cold storage, which took time to finish as it is more intricate, is now around 38% to 45% utilized and is expected to reach 70% to 80% utilization by the end of the first quarter.
Claxton noted that they do not intend to reach 100% utilization of the cold storage. Once it reaches that point, they will look into constructing a new one.
MSL said the hub can withstand a 9.2-magnitude earthquake and a typhoon with maximum winds of 250 kilometers per hour.
Complementing the facility are 25 four-wheeled vehicles that carry out deliveries from the hub to clients. Claxton said more than 100 four-wheelers are also expected to arrive within the month.
MSL also has a trucking company with around 270 trucks and trailers that it can tap to deliver cargoes from the ports and airport to the Taguig facility.
Claxton said the hub was originally intended only as a dry storage facility. However, on seeing the opportunity opened by domestic demand for perishable products, they decided to include a cold storage in the hub as well.
He noted that demand for perishable products “is growing as quickly as GDP (gross domestic product of the Philippines) is growing.” He said Class C citizens are growing substantially, as well as their disposable income, and they are using this income to buy perishable products.
He said they see the same trends in other metropolitan areas in the country such as Cebu, Davao, and Cagayan De Oro, where MSL is also considering putting up similar facilities.
One of MSL’s goals, Claxton said, is to upgrade farm-to-market products through cold chain facilities so the country will eventually cease to import agricultural and meat products, something that will benefit local farmers.
The Board of Investments last year approved the MSL facility as a preferred activity under the agribusiness and fisheries category of the government’s latest Investment Priorities Plan.
Aside from the Taguig facility, MSL through its unit, One Stop Warehousing Solutions, Inc., has been providing warehousing solutions to different clients’ warehouses. – Roumina Pablo
