Canadian-Indian joint venture plans up to 15 new warehouses.

Apollo LogiSolutions Limited (ALL), Mumbai, India, subsidiary of Apollo International Limited, and Spire Group Limited of Toronto, Canada, have gone into a US $250 million joint venture to build and operate temperature-controlled warehouses in India.

The joint venture will operate as Apollo Everest Kool Solutions. It is part of a global expansion strategy by Patrick A. Gouveia, owner of the Spire Group, which has facilities worth US $450 million under contract in Romania, Maldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, and Montreal, Canada.

"We are delighted to enter into this joint venture with a truly world class partner, and are looking forward to an exciting future together," said Gouveia.

Apollo Everest will build up to 15 temperature-controlled warehouses in India starting this year. The first two will be in Mulund and Panvel. Spire will be actively engaged in the design and construction work.

"It is a joint venture of equal significance to both the groups. From Apoio we will bring to the table over three decades of business experience and professionalism," commented Raaja Kanwar, managing director of ALL.

"As India's integration into the global economy strengthens, the container traffic is projected to increase about three fold in the next ten years," added Kapil Anand, president of the company. "The requirement for state of the art logistics hubs with integrated cold chain facilities is the need of the hour. ALL is committed to provide solutions that would give its customers a competitive edge resulting from cost efficiencies and better service levels."

Currently ALL is managing an ICD at Mulund. It is in the process of setting up a logistics hub in Panvel, at a distance of 32 kilometers from JNPT, India's premier container port in Nhava-Sheva, near Mumbai. The facility, strategically situated along the national highway network, spans over 60 acres of land and will be equipped with state of the art equipment, information technology and experienced staff.

Founded in 1986, Spire Group Limited is a privately held corporation specializing in the acquisition, design, construction and management of public refrigerated warehouses and logistics business. Along with its subsidiaries and affiliates, the company designs, constructs and operates distribution centers in partnership with manufacturers and distributors.

Spire Group Limited through its North American subsidiary, Everest Cold Storage, currently operates a cold storage facility in Montreal, Quebec. Also in Montreal, construction has started on a 4,500,000 cubic PRW with 14,900 pallet positions. Elsewhere in Canada, Spire is currently close to completing the acquisition of sites in Calgary and Toronto.

Further afield, Spire Group Limited's European subsidiary, Arctic Cold Storage, is developing sites in Kiev and Odessa, Ukraine; Bucharest, Romania; Moscow, Russia; Delhi and Mumbai, India; and Beijing and Tianjin, People's Republic of China.