about us

Formed in 1967, we at Cooltainer bring to our customers over 40 years of experience in handling perishable products.
As a dedicated reefer operator, Cooltainer provides a comprehensive service for temperature sensitive cargo throughout the South Pacific region.
In many trades, especially the trans Tasman, Cooltainer is a well established reefer operator, and we undertake temperature care shipments for a broad spectrum of export clients.
Cooltainer operates our own fleet of owned or leased 20’ and 40’ integrated refrigerated containers, and continues to invest in improving the standard of the containers. We are now able to offer high cube 9’6” 20’ refrigerated containers as well as the standard 8’6” 20’ and high cube 9’6” 40’ units. As well as this, we offer flexibility to exporters and importers with our excellent frequency of sailing opportunities.
We stand apart from many other competitors by maintaining our own office and team network through Australia and New Zealand, which allows us to provide our customers with a very high standard of service.
We are solely focussed on perishable product. Our staff is fully aware of the care and attention demanded by temperature-sensitive cargo, and are trained to expertly dispatch every consignment.
Cooltainer operates with standards set down under an international assurance program, and have meticulous compliance with the many statutory, industry and importing country requirements.

Our History

Without reliable refrigerated shipping New Zealand would never have been able to compete on the world market with other major primary producers like Australia and South Africa. Some defining moments in Cooltainer history include:

• 1967- Cooltainer was established in Dunedin by Capt. Brian McGowan and Dick Little. Using locally designed and built George&Ashton integral refrigerated containers Cooltainer moved the first New Zealand coastal “reefer” and then in conjunction with Union Steamship Company, the first trans-Tasman refrigerated container.
• 1970s- Cooltainer offices were established in Australia.
• 1980s- Cooltainer began operating in the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea.
• 1984- The company became 100% owned by the Owens Group.
• 2003- Mainfreight were successful in making an aggressive takeover of Owens at the end of 2003.
• 2004- Mainfreight sold Cooltainer to a London based company, Seacontainers.
• 2007- Seacontainers retained ownership of the business until July 2007 when it was purchased by a group of private investors, including some senior managers of the company.

Today, the strength of Cooltainer is that we are able to offer our customers a variety of different sailing opportunities and a reliable supply of equipment. By maintaining a dedicated branch network throughout New Zealand and Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne we are able to provide a diverse customer base with a high standard of specialised customer service. Being able to offer a coolstore to coolstore, or door to door service Cooltainer provides a crucial link in the perishable supply chain of the South Pacific region.