Upon its founding in 2017, Orca Cold Chain Solutions firmly planted itself on the map with its impressive facilities and its strong focus on technology. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it found itself in a unique position to contribute to the Philippines’ efforts to vaccinate its population and move towards recovery. We talked to Orca president Yerik Cosiquien about entering a challenging sector, his belief in delivering food safety for everyone, and his hopes for the future.
Why did you decide to enter cold chain, despite it being a capital-intensive sector?
We saw that there was a huge need for more [cold chain] facilities in the Philippines, and then we thought, if we’re going to do this, we want to do it right.
When we talked to people who’s already in cold chain, we saw that there’s demand for high service levels. From our end, we wanted to put an emphasis on the food safety and food security aspect of cold chain. A lot of contamination happens because of human intervention. So, to avoid that, you automate the processes when it comes to handling the food. We saw an opportunity there.
What led to Orca’s decision to locate within Metro Manila?
We wanted to make sure that we get closer to customers. When we decided to build here in Metro Manila, of course, we saw the cost. Real estate is very prime here, but we thought we still need to go big because the requirements are so big. That’s why we went to automation. Instead of you needing a big chunk of land, we can actually use smaller-sized land, and then we go higher. From that point of view, we’re doing our part for the environment. We’re leaving a smaller carbon footprint.
How has the response been from your customers since you opened your sites?
A lot of them are very interested [to know], how does automation actually help? When we first started, any business would encounter a lot of challenges as we are trying to get used to the technology. We committed mistakes, but as we progressed, we saw that things are better. We saw that speed is really important, the efficiencies. We can actually see that from the way we do things compared to conventional facilities.
But going automated or going conventional, they both have their own advantages and disadvantages. For us, we believe in technology, and we really believe that this is the future. When it comes to technology, you cannot just acquire it. The company has to have the culture and the belief in it. The people in Orca, that’s who we are. We know that this is the future and we know this will actually help us service our clients, and in the end, the consumers are the one who’s going to be benefiting from this.
You came at the right time, so to speak. You opened your Taguig site in February, and then the pandemic struck, and suddenly you’re in the position to offer storage for a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
We already have MOUs with three cities, but we’re also in discussions with several more, and also with other private companies.
The main thing with the COVID vaccine is that you need cold chain. Of course, we built our facility for food. However, we saw that we can make some adjustments, where we are actually able to separate the portion of the vaccines—at the end of the day, vaccines and food cannot commingle. But the principle in handling vaccines and food is essentially the same. You cannot break the cold chain. And when we found out about how the vaccines need cold chain, we just wanted to do our part in making sure we can get the country back to normal.
What role do you hope to play in the nationwide rollout of the vaccine?
Right now we’re really focusing on Metro Manila and Luzon. But we are a logistics company. We cannot just limit ourselves. We make sure that, if needed, our services can reach up to the [other] regions of the Philippines. We made some partnerships, we made some tie-ups, to ensure that outside Metro Manila and Luzon, we can still do what’s needed from us outside this area.
Does Orca have plans to build facilities outside of Metro Manila?
Our plan is basically a nationwide approach. We have locations in Cebu and [Cagayan de Oro]. We’re looking at Davao. We have locations here in Tarlac, in Pampanga, in Pangasinan. Our plans have just been a little bit delayed because of the pandemic, but once everything eases up, we will plan to go on our full-blown expansion.
I would assume those sites would have the same level of technology that you have introduced in your Caloocan and Taguig sites.
All of our facilities would be technology-driven. However, the type of technology we will be using will vary, depending on the area and the market. We make sure that our facilities ae dynamic enough to be able to accommodate what the market demands in a particular area.
How does Orca intend to set the tone for the cold chain sector in the coming years?
Food safety and food security is basically our mantra. We really want to ensure that. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that you can be comfortable and secure that your food went through these proper processes.