Page 16 - ITLN May-June 2025

Feature
Indicold

When Indicold aggregator or the "Airbnb of
warehousing." “We work with existing
cold storage owners or manufacturers
who have excess capacity, and we
market them. We have been doing
automation started leasing out facilities.”
encountered this since 2017, and we have recently
Earlier, in 2024, Indicold
commissioned a warehouse in
Dholasan, Gujarat, with 7,500+ pallet
This is the story of how an Indian cold chain warehousing capacity, which he claims is India's
startup transformed itself from an ordinary storage firm first fully automated high-bay frozen
to a high-tech automation solution provider when faced ASRS facility. Meanwhile, Jalan also
claims that the Detroj facility was
with the harsh realities of Indian real estate. India's first and the world's 29th (a
calculated guess) deployment of a
Libin Chacko Kurian
Four-Way Shuttle ASRS system in the
frozen segment.
T he Indian cold chain aims to reach 1.2 million pallet Shuttle implementation in Detroj
In fact, Jalan calls the Four-Way
capacity by 2028.
industry is unforgiving and
"mind-bogglingly revolutionary."
extremely competitive.”
On April 25, 2025, Indicold
These are the words
of Kartik Jalan, Founder of the cold announced the launch of its newest "This, combined with AI, is what future
and second fully automated frozen
automated buildings will look like. This
chain logistics firm Indicold, who facility. This is a 10,000-pallet, 90,000- setup is likely to remain for the next 15
points out that it is one of the most sq ft Automated Storage and Retrieval years—unless we see flying shuttles or
challenging industries to do business System (ASRS)-powered warehouse in some form of anti-gravity technology.
in. “If you look at the history of cold Gujarat's Detroj. But for now, this is the future, and it
chain logistics, it is littered with a lot of Located 60 kilometres west of will stay for many years to come."
failures. I started in 2013 and have seen Ahmedabad city, the -20°C precision These automated solutions enable
so many companies come and go.” temperature-controlled facility will 24x7 reliability, enhance worker safety
He noted that there are more than serve agri-food, QSR, FMCG, and
3,500 players in the country, and export sectors.
none of them, even the biggest ones, Indicold operates 17 cold chain
will have a market share of more facilities nationwide, including
than 0.3 or 0.4 percent. “Even in 6 leased ones. The company
the organised markets, the share is primarily follows a revenue-
around 16 to 17 percent.” sharing model, which
Thus, he believes there is a huge Jalan likens to an
opportunity for a player to come and
grow in the country.
Founded by Kartik
Jalan and Niharika
Jalan, and backed
by Fundalogical
Ventures, Indicold

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Indicold's Dholasan warehouse (India's first
May - June 2025
fully automated high-bay frozen ASRS facility) www.itln.in