We share relevant third party stories on our website. This release was written and issued by Wild Water Group.
Since the Wild Water Group acquisition of a 12 acre site with a 138,000 square foot warehouse facility in Aberbargoed in September 2018, their mission has been to further support customer growth.
In 2019, the Group was seen as one of the Top 19 companies in Wales to look out for, who would make a big impact in the business marketplace in Wales.
In 2020, a further 3 new sites have been acquired in Newport, Avonmouth, and Plymouth. This brings the total storage facility offering to 6 sites across South Wales and Southwest England.
These new sites allow Wild Water Group to expand their network and deliver on their mission to provide the leading bespoke cold storage and distribution services across Wales and England.
The expansion has seen the Group’s capacity increase to over 45,000 frozen pallets, 6,000 chilled pallets, and 10,000 ambient pallets, as well as a significant increase in their blast freezing capacity.
Ken Rattenbury, founder and Group Managing Director of the Wild Water Group says, “Our latest expansion achieves both our employment and operational goals for 2020. From an operational perspective, we’ve used the expansion to build upon our subsidiary Transport company as we’ve been able to further our cross-docking opportunities, which allows us to provide maximum value for money for our customers and reduces our overall carbon footprint.”
The Group has also developed their Commercial, Finance, and Human Resources Departments. Their HR Manager, Bryony Arnold, advises that, “In such an uncertain time, we are incredibly proud that we’ve been able to offer opportunities to people in areas of high unemployment and we remain committed to developing talent from within. We’ve supported many of our new colleagues into managerial or technical positions since the acquisition.”
In addition to this, Ken expressed the significance of the Group’s expansion in the current economic climate, “Whilst both businesses and the economy as a whole have been hugely impacted by the decision to leave the European Union and the COVID-19 pandemic, Wild Water Group have continued our considered and sustainable growth strategy, providing stability for our employees and an efficient and streamlined solution to support our customers’ business needs.”
Jake Rattenbury, the Operations Director for the Group explains, “Over the past few years we’ve found the demand from our customers has been growing constantly for an all-round bespoke cold storage solution. We’re proud to be able to deliver on that and dramatically increase our storage capacity over the last three years whilst still maintaining our high levels of service. It’s great to support our existing and new customers with their short and long-term needs, and we continue to offer flexibility and support on a larger scale. It’s a testament to the whole Wild Water team that we’ve been able to grow continually in such challenging times and we’re excited for what the future will bring.”
Paul Watson, former CFO and CEO of Airbus Integrated Systems and Cyber Security based in Newport, joined Wild Water as Group Finance Director in December 2019 to build a strong strategic finance capability to match the growth and ambition of the business. Paul comments, “Having achieved our ambitious goal to expand into southwest England during the toughest and most uncertain financial and economic crisis since World War II, Wild Water Group will continue to invest in our current facilities and deliver on our strategy for rapid expansion.”
The Group is now looking to the future; their Group Non-Executive Director, Nigel Payne, advises that, “The focus is now for the Group to grow sales at all its site locations as the Group is seen by many of our major customers in Wales and growing Southwest customer base as a key strategic partner in view of our turnkey offering. Whilst our headquarters are based in Wales, we are now seen as very much a regional business for the food and drink sector.”
Mike Rattenbury, the Group’s Commercial Director and Legal Counsel, expands further on the Group’s ambitious plans for the current year, “Another focus in 2021 is very much to support our existing and new customers’ export initiatives to global markets. Wild Water Group brings to the market a very strong alliance agreement in this area, and with GSL (part of the Al Shirawi Group Of companies), they are a leading onshore 3PL provider within the UAE and a GAC leading ship logistics company, which offer complete logistic freight forwarding and marine services on a global basis.”
