Polar Nexus Integrated Cold Storage Business Plan › Section 8 › Operations Plan

8.1 Facility design

The ~22,000 m² facility is designed around throughput efficiency,
energy performance and food safety. Key design features include high-bay
insulated construction with advanced panel systems to minimise thermal
load; segregated temperature zones with airlocks and rapid-action doors
to limit energy loss; a dedicated blast-freeze area; ample dock capacity
with dock-levellers and air-seals; and a layout optimised for
first-in-first-out (FIFO) and first-expired-first-out (FEFO) stock
rotation. The 25,000 pallet positions are distributed across regimes
with flexibility to shift the chilled/frozen split as demand
dictates.

8.2 Refrigeration and technology

Refrigeration will use an energy-efficient, low-environmental-impact
system (such as ammonia or CO₂-based plant) sized for the facility’s
peak load with redundancy (N+1) on critical components to protect
against single points of failure. A modern warehouse management system
(WMS) integrated with customer systems provides real-time inventory
visibility, while cold-chain telemetry monitors temperature continuously
across every zone, with automated alerting and full audit trails for
compliance. This technology backbone is also the platform that will
scale across future nodes.

8.3 Energy strategy

The energy strategy is central to both cost and resilience. A 3.2 MWp
rooftop solar array, paired with 4 MWh of battery storage, is expected
to offset close to 40% of grid electricity consumption, with the battery
enabling load-shifting away from expensive peak tariffs and bridging
short supply interruptions. Standby generation provides further
protection for critical refrigeration load. Given grid tariffs
approaching R3.00/kWh against a solar levelised cost near R0.95/kWh,
this configuration materially lowers the facility’s largest operating
cost while qualifying for the Section 12B renewable-energy capital
allowance. As tariffs continue to rise, the relative advantage compounds
over the asset’s life.

8.4 Food safety, quality and compliance

Food-safety accreditation is a prerequisite for serving blue-chip
retail, export and pharmaceutical customers. The facility will be
designed and operated to achieve and maintain internationally recognised
standards (such as HACCP and FSSC 22000), with documented standard
operating procedures, pest control, hygiene zoning, staff training,
traceability and regular third-party audits. Compliance is treated as a
commercial asset: accreditation widens the addressable customer base and
supports premium pricing.

8.5 Organisation and staffing

The facility will be operated by a lean, professional team scaling
with occupancy from roughly 90 full-time employees at launch toward 120
at stabilisation, across operations, refrigeration and maintenance
engineering, food safety and quality, commercial and customer service,
finance and administration. Specialist refrigeration maintenance and
security are partly outsourced under service-level agreements. The
Company will invest in training and retention to build the operational
know-how that differentiates a reliable cold store from an unreliable
one.

Confidential — this business plan is provided to prospective investors and lenders for evaluation purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of Polar Nexus Integrated Cold Storage (Pty) Ltd.