National supermarket avoids festive cooling failure

The festive season is critically important for retailers. It is a time when every business has the opportunity to maximise sales. And that means every available resource must be on hand to ensure operations run smoothly. Central to this time of year is the food and beverage sector, specifically the delivery. Without fresh produce on the shelves at your local supermarket, then customers can easily lose faith in the brand and shop elsewhere. All that matters is that shelves are stocked and customers can get what they need.

And in the build-up to this special time of year, a national supermarket was close to a potential disaster. A warehouse, responsible for the cold storage and distribution of fresh produce, relied heavily on their cooling system. When a vital element – the compressors – were not fully functioning – it threatened to derail the client’s aims for a successful year.

Without intervention, this household name would suffer irreversible losses, not only to budget but potentially to their customer base too. A dependable cooling package, provided quickly, by an experienced team could help to avoid such negative repercussions.

Stock levels are at their highest at this time of year, so the inability to keep produce chilled would mean that the losses would be unimaginable and the replacement would be impossible. This had to be avoided at all costs.

Our team were on the ground and in talks with the client swiftly. It was clear a backup would be needed while the compressors couldn’t be relied on wholly. A bespoke package of 11 chillers, 51 low temperature air handler units (AHUs) and 13 generators were installed, as well as associated ancillaries. Combined, this would provide 4 MW of cooling capability should the worst happen.

The temporary kit could not interfere with day-to-day operations in the warehouse such as loading at bay doors or restricting forklift manoeuvres. Our team erected scaffolding, so the air handlers could be stacked above each other, to reduce floor space and provide access to bay doors.

All of this was installed rapidly within three weeks, so the festive preparations were unhindered. Following the Christmas period, maintenance was required, which would demand intermittent cooling. The customer extended the hire into January so this could be planned, thanks to our cooling solution.

Our cooling solution meant that the most important time of year could go according to plan, without the risk of losses in either produce or cost. In fact, we were asked to extend our agreement, so further maintenance could be carried out. To ensure the worst does not happen, everyone needs an experienced partner who knows the importance of a rapid, reliable response. The client contacted Aggreko based on our reputation of providing a complete turnkey solution that they could depend on.