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Cases: One Size Does Not Fit All BY GEORGE ANDERSON
Ultimately, it’s about driving bottom line performance in an increasingly competitive environment. For case manufacturers, that requires being more nimble and responsive than ever. Chris Moser, manager, marketing services for Hill Phoenix, Colonial Heights, Va., says manufacturers need to get the input of a lot more people within organizations than only a few years ago. To find the right solution for a retailer, the company now often speaks to merchandisers, purchasing agents, operations people and even the people who clean the cases. Jim Knudsen, vp of sales and marketing for Columbus, Ga.-based Kysor/Warren, says retailers are eager for differentiation. Since cases can account for more than half of a store’s electrical costs, one differentiating factor everyone seems to want is better energy efficiency. In recent years, manufacturers have offered innovations in everything from lighting to evaporator temperatures to burn less electricity. Hussmann, for example, has designed an optional night curtain canopy to help produce savings. “We have engineered an integrated night curtain. There are some available now in the retrofit market but the pushback we’ve gotten from retailers is that you screw them to the front or to the top and they are pretty unsightly when they are not in use,” says Dave Martin, director, retail product management for the Bridgeton, Mo.-based company. 13% Savings “We’ve designed the canopy so that when you’re using the night curtain, you can’t tell that it’s there… If you can use the night curtain for six hours a day during closing or off-peak periods, you can save about 13% of your total energy for that merchandiser.” Knudsen points to Food Lion as the best example of a chain that is committed to reducing energy costs. “Of all the Energy Star stores in the country, half of them are Food Lion,” he says. Food Lion is understandably proud of its accomplishments. According to the company’s Web site, the chain has used new lighting, refrigeration, cooling and other technologies to reduce its energy use by more than 1.62 trillion BTU since 2000. Food Lion’s energy savings program is also good for the environment. The chain, citing EPA estimates, says that its average Energy Star store cuts CO2 emissions from the environment by an amount equal to that of 19 cars. Howell Feig , director of sales for AHT Cooling Systems USA, North Charleston, S.C., says concerns about the greenhouse effect and more stringent regulation of approved gases has pushed eco matters to the forefront. AHT focuses heavily on environmental issues in design, Feig says, adding that the units are plug and play. The cases use R44, a gas he says is more environmentally friendly than most. Further, only eight or nine grams are used in each case, so if there is a leak it is contained within that particular unit, Feig notes. Martin says Hussmann’s Impact line uses a modular coil concept that cuts the amount of refrigerant in the coil by 50%, thereby reducing the amount of refrigerant required to be in the evaporator and lowering the amount of HFCs in the store. Moser sees a connection between retailers’ approach to environmental issues and their performance in the marketplace. “A lot of our major customers are using secondary refrigerants,” he says. “Some of them were trying secondary coolant eight to 10 years ago when it was coming into the mainstream. You see some that are really jumping ahead and are forward-thinking. Oddly enough, those are the ones that seem to have their own niche and are competing really well with the big box type of retailers.” Distributed Systems Knudsen says there are other ways retailers can reduce the environmental impact of gases and save energy at the same time. He urges retailers to consider distributed refrigeration — putting the refrigeration as close as close as possible to the end-use. This reduces the amount of refrigerant, cuts the number of pipe joints and thus reduces leaks. Making the refrigeration system smaller and more dedicated towards specific applications can also save energy, he says. “Rather than have to design a system that can run your deli cases all the way to your dairy cases to your bakery cases, if you have different systems for each of those areas you can design them to meet the needs of the refrigeration required. In a lot of ways, distributed refrigeration gives you the benefits of secondary refrigerants without the complexity,” Knudsen says. Scary sounding names including campylobacteriosis, E. coli infection and calmonellosis are bad, sometimes even deadly, news for people infected with these food-borne diseases. Grocers, increasingly mindful of their role in protecting the food supply, have stepped up quality control efforts such as HAACP while looking at every detail that will keep their customers safe — including the cases used in stores. Different Pressures “You’re looking at a different set of pressures. You’re looking at regulatory pressures… there’s NSF and other regulatory agencies, health inspectors coming in, that influence in the industry has really picked up,” says Moser. “You have VPs of food safety and others saying, ‘You may be able to merchandise this case great, but I can’t clean it. I need listeria-free shelves, or these types of options.’ “ While much of the current emphasis is on energy savings and food safety, this hasn’t lessened the importance of merchandising product efficiently. This has led to more product customization and innovation. Martin says Hussmann incorporated a lighted sign or lighted canopy package where you can put a sign at the point of purchase for advertising or product promotion. Hussmann also improved the aesthetics of a full-view glass end in its medium-temp cases, which now offer a full view from not only the front of the case but also from the side. Feig says AHT’s cases are designed to “utilize the full marketing presentation of each package” displayed. He points to the German retailer Rewe (pronounced Rchay –ver) as a success story. According to the 6,500-unit chain, which has stores in 13 European countries, sales of frozen foods have increased significantly in each of the years since it first installed AHT units.
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