22.07.2026

A-peel-ing climate control at Portsmouth cargo terminal

When it comes to bananas, Portico plays a bigger role than most people might realise. Around 50% of all bananas consumed in the UK pass through its facilities at Portsmouth. As the UK’s market leader for banana imports, Portico handles vast volumes of fruit every year, making temperature control a critical part of the journey from ship to shelf.

Portico’s state-of-the-art refrigerated warehouses are designed to store and protect a wide range of fresh produce. For bananas, storage conditions are particularly important. Kept at around 14°C, they require carefully controlled temperatures to preserve quality and maximise shelf life. However, with the warehouse doors facing the dockside and exposed to prevailing coastal winds, maintaining consistent conditions during loading and unloading required a robust solution.

To address this, two JS Kool cold store air curtains, supplied through leading electrical contractor Taylor Durant, were installed vertically on either side of the warehouse doorway. The units create an effective environmental barrier that reduces temperature fluctuations, minimises condensation risk, and preserves product quality.

Pete Goldthorpe, Director at Taylor Durant, commented:
“Maintaining stable temperatures within the banana storage facility is a key requirement for Portico. With the doorway exposed to dockside conditions and frequent traffic movements, the Kool cold store air curtains provide an effective solution to ensure the integrity of the temperature-controlled environment.”

Lewis Wilson, General Manager at Portico Shipping, added:
“With such a large share of the UK’s bananas passing through our facility, the responsibility to protect product integrity is huge. We want every banana to reach consumers in the best possible condition, and maintaining the right storage environment is a vital part of that. The Kool cold store air curtains help us achieve that without slowing down operations.”

The Kool air curtain is specifically designed for cold store and industrial applications where effective temperature separation is critical. It works by forming a powerful air barrier across the opening of a doorway to prevent the ingress of warmer external air and the escape of cold internal air, while allowing uninterrupted access.

Alongside its performance benefits, the Kool helps improve energy efficiency. Industry guidance suggests that energy losses through cold store doorways can be reduced by more than 65% when a correctly specified and installed air curtain is used. This makes the Kool particularly well suited to busy cold storage, warehousing, and logistics environments where temperature control and operational efficiency go hand in hand.

The result for Portico is a stable, energy-efficient storage environment that keeps Britain’s favourite fruit in top-banana condition.