Food supplier settles in JadeWeserPort Wilhelmshaven Freight Village
Wilhelmshaven – NaturLink GmbH of Dortmund is the first food supplier to settle in the freight village at JadeWeserPort Wilhelmshaven. The leasehold contract for the 1.8 ha property in the south of the site was signed yesterday. NaturLink is a specialist supplier of natural fruit and vegetable raw materials used in the beverage, dairy, ice cream, soft drinks, bakery and processed food industries. Construction will start at the site in the first of two phases in early 2024 of a new hall with offices and laboratory as well as a 13,400 sqm warehouse featuring a blending station, where products can be blended together according to customer specifications. This adds up to a storage capacity of 35,000 t in Wilhelmshaven. The overall investment at the location is around EUR 12 million.
NaturLink GmbH signs leasehold contract and invests EUR 12 million
The fruit and vegetable varieties will be imported by ship from Turkey, Asia and South America, among other places, and assembled and bottled at the freight village premises. The fruit and vegetable raw materials will then leave Wilhelshaven destined for companies throughout the European market for further processing. In the medium term, the focus is also on exporting the products to the USA and other countries. Starting with 15 employees, work is set to commence at the beginning of 2025. NaturLink GmbH is a subsidiary of the processing company Göknur, founded in 1993 and based in Ankara, Turkey. It has 5,000 hectares under cultivation producing a variety of fruits and vegetables according to ecological aspects. The company has additional facilities in Mersin, New Jersey, Virginia, the Netherlands and China. A settlement of the same size as in the local freight village is also planned in Felixstowe, UK.
Andreas Bullwinkel, Managing Director of Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven JadeWeserPort-Marketing GmbH & Co. KG (JWPM): “We are pleased that the location was able to convince NaturLink to come to the freight village. They are the first international supplier to the food industry to settle here and will also give impetus to the container terminal in the future.”
The business unit manager of NaturLink GmbH, Erik Bendler, had the following to say about the signing of the leasehold contract: “With the investment in Wilhelmshaven, we can offer tailor-made products from Göknur and other manufacturers to our customers throughout the European market. We can also export these products worldwide from here in the future. The direct connection to the port was the decisive criterion for this investment decision in JadeWeserPort. We also hope that the northern German ports will work together more in the future so that the synergies of all ports can be used.”
On the picture (from left to right):
Mr. Michael Moehlmann (sales director JWPM), Mr. Andreas Bullwinkel (managing director JWPM), Mr. Osman Aslanali (managing director NaturLink GmbH) and Erik Bendler (business unit manager NaturLink GmbH)
