an introduction to refrigerated display cases in food retail

8/10/2019 An Introduction to Refrigerated Display Cases in Food Retail

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For as long back as I can remember, shopping for fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs and meat, was alwaysentrusted to the lady of the house or the cook in our homes. Thesabziwallah would turn up daily in the st reet,or even knock at the front door with a basket loaded with fresh vegetables and fruit s. The stores sellingvegetables or fruits in the market had no air-conditioning, nor did they have any refrigerators for storingfruit, eggs and meat . All items were fresh and had to be sold by the end of the day.

The trend is now changing. Large retail chains are making a presence in most cities, slowly penetrating intomost localities with air-condit ioned stores and refrigerated open display cases. Some of them have evenstarted to advertise with flyers, thrown in with the daily newspaper. Something unimaginable even fiveyears ago!

We have already witnessed the changing face of the Indian retail indus try. The next level of change is nowbeing witnessed in Food Retail, i.e. the way we Indians buy foodstuff, milk products, frozen food and ourgroceries.

A battery of the indust ryswhos who has jumped in to trigger this retail boom, led by big names likeReliance, Future Group, Bhart i-Walmart, Foodworld, the Birla group, the Tata group, the RPG group, theModis , the Namdhari group, and many more.

Those venturing into food retail need to decide on issues like the size and footprint of the store/s. Differentformats of stores include: Hyper Marts : > 10,000 sq.ft.

Large Supermarkets : 4,000 10,000 sq.ft.Mini Supermarkets : 1,000 - 4,000 sq.f t.Convenience stores : < 1000 sq.ft.

Today, there are a range of refrigeration solutions that cater to a wide variety of food retail needs, whetherfor air-conditioned stores or otherwise. Irrespective of the kind of store you may be setting up, the followingtime-tested food retai l concepts that have evolved in the developed world, may be worth noting:

Food Retailing Concepts and Refrigeration1. The Wall and the Well :

When designing a functional food retail outlet, the stored food can either be displayed verticallyagainst the wall, or horizontally along the floor, i.e. in the well.

From a refrigeration point of view, there are a vast variety of cooling solutions to choose from forboth applications. For instance, you can set up upright glass door showcases both freezers andchillers against thewalls. One of thecommon blunders by many mom andpop stores, is that they tend to acceptthe free showcases supplied byvarious food and beverage suppliers.In the process, they tend to ignore thesymmetry and uniformity of the displaycases inside their own store, as thesedisplay cases supplied by variouscompanies come in different sizes andwith their customised branding, oftenmarring the in-store ambience. On thecontrary, the modern day store ownerscan insist on a uniform and tall displayalong the walls to give a neatappearance of foodstuff on display(please see picture 1).

It's about Cooling

Picture 1

An introduction to

Refrigerated Display Cases in Food Retail


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There are open type mulidecksavailable now for air-conditioned stores, which mayeither be plug in types with aself-contained refrigerationsystem (see picture 2), orremote units where you canplace the cooling unit outsideand thus keep the noise away(see picture 3). For very largesuperstores, there are rack

systems available which cancontrol multiple showcaseswith one centrally-operatedremote system.

Picture 2

Picture 3


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The Well :

For the well, there are options

ranging from simple glass topfreezers and coolers (see picture 4) , to open type plug inisland freezers / coolers (see picture 5) , to open type remoteisland freezers / coolers(see picture 6). A product that is veryinteresting from an Indian point ofview, is a glass top Island Freezerthat is tropicalised, energy-efficientand available at a fraction of thecost of corresponding open typeIsland Freezers available in the

market (see picture 7).

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7


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2. Access and Visibility:The food retail concept is fairlystraightforward... the more you canshow, the more you will tend to sell.Similarly, the more your customerscan comfortably access, the morethey will tend to buy.

Picture 8 amply demonstrates howto maximise the display area, usingthe same footprint of refrigeratedspace. The same point can be

illustrated with open typemultidecks.Picture 8

Picture 9

3. Modularity:Not surprisingly, an average food store evolves withtime as it learns local needs. Its refrigeration needsmay grow with time. Today, there are modularrefrigerators / freezers available, that can just beadded on, to give the same uniform look and feel to thestore, with one door opening onto the lef t and theadjacent one opening onto the right, to give that neatcupboard-like look(see picture 9).


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4. Serve-Over Counters:Many supermarkets plan manned or self-service serve-over counters for bakeryproducts and for serving food out of a livekitchen inside the store. There are manydesign options suitable for suchapplications.Picture 10 illustrates one suchoption.

Picture 10


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5. Lifetime Cost: As the competi tion intensif ies , the obvious pressure on foodretailers is not only to cut capital costs down to the bone, butalso to look at ways of minimising recurring costs, such asenergy consumption, life span of equipment installed andservice and maintenance costs and replacement costs.

There are many other facets with respect to the refrigerationneeds of these stores that need to be kept in mind, whiledesigning them in the Indian context. I will attempt to deal withthem one by one:

High Ambient Conditions:

Most parts of our country have high ambient temperaturesthroughout the year. There have been instances of store ownershaving bought refrigeration systems, such as open type Multidecksand Island Freezers, after having been tempted by a colorful international catalogue, only to find them notdelivering the optimal temperature in our rigorous local conditions.

Power Outages:The other typical factor in the Indian context is the power outages in most parts of the country , including the bigmetros except for Mumbai and Kolka ta. This puts extra pressure on the store to budget for gensets and tocontemplate whether to use them only for lighting, or also for air-conditioning. It will be a while before theinternational concept of supermarkets remaining open for 24 hours catches on. The stores will therefore need tograpple with turning off electricity / air-conditioning during the night hours and its consequent impact on certainfoodstuff stored in expensive refrigerated cabinets, which may not perform optimally when the ambient

temperatures rise above 25C.Unstable Voltage:

This is yet another challenge faced by the providers of refrigeration solutions, not only with respect to its impact onthe efficiency and longevity of the compressors and the refrigeration system, but more often than not, on theelectronic circui ts that tend to be far less tolerant of wild fluctuations. Alternately, there is a need to factor in capitalcosts towards installation of servo stabilisers and voltage correcters.

Dust in the environment:This is another factor which ought to be considered, particularly with reference to the after-support provided by therefrigeration service contractor, or by the maintenance wing of the superstore chain.

Spares availability:Yet another aspect is the availability of spares, more part icularly if they happen to be proprietary to the supplyingcompany. There are very few companies in India who take service and spares management seriously, and a quickreference check on the supplier may be wel l worth the effort.

Service Support:The challenges mentioned in the foregoing, as also the normal wear and tear of the ref rigeration system, willwarrant seeking service help from the refrigeration provider. Many companies are setting up multi-location stores,and a closer look at the service network of the service provider is certainly called for.

Article authored by Neeraj Seth

Neeraj Seth, 46, is the Managing Direc tor of Celsius Refrigeration Pvt. Ltd. A management graduate with an

experience of over 24 years in market ing, he has spent his last 12 years in the field of commercial refrigerat ion. Hehas had senior management stints in organisations like Blue Star and Usha International.

an introduction to refrigerated display cases in food retail

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