Done deals: July 23, 2020

Amazon is adding two new Texas DCs. In Pflugerville about 1,000 employees will work alongside Amazon robotics to pick, pack and ship small items such as books, electronics and toys. The 820,000 square-foot facility is anticipated to launch in 2021. More than 700 workers at the new 625,000 square-foot El Paso fulfillment centre, which is anticipated to launch in 2021, will also pick, pack and ship small items alongside Amazon robots.

Global metals business Nyrstar is buying three heavy terminal tractors from Kalmar for the its Australian operations. Delivery is scheduled for Q4 2020 and follows an earlier order for two reachstackers which were delivered in Q2 2020. The Nyrstar Port Pirie smelter on the eastern shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, an integrated multi-metals recovery plant, will take delivery of one terminal tractor. The two remaining machines will be operated at the Nyrstar Hobart smelter in Tasmania, one of the world’s highest volume zinc smelters.

Agility Logistics is using OpenText Content Services as a centralized repository for capturing, sharing and managing documents. Every shipment produces a physical paper trail of documents – such as airway bills, invoices and bills of lading – which previously took days to reach their destination for cargo processing. OpenText’s services will automatically scan and transform documents into PDFs and capture metadata for search and retrieval. They will also ensure secure storage, build connections across different media and ensure regulatory compliance for document content and retention.

Cold Solutions, a temperature-controlled warehouse and logistics service provider, will invest US$70 million to construct temperature-controlled cold storage warehouses in Kenya. Cold Solutions’s 161,000 (15,000 sqm) facility in Tatu City Special Economic Zone in Nairobi will be the largest, most advanced and efficient in the region. The facility is designed to provide numerous temperature ranges from +26 to -40 C and multiple product ranges, from fresh fruit and vegetables, to pharmaceuticals and vaccines, meats and poultry, and frozen foods. Cold Solutions Kenya is a portfolio company of ARCH Cold Chain Solutions East Africa Fund, a private equity fund advised by ARCH Emerging Markets Partners Limited (ARCH).