Central England Co-operative

Tailoring for the convenience store footprint

Background

We have always understood that convenience stores demand refrigeration solutions that are compact, efficient and seamlessly integrated into tightly constrained store layouts. As UK convenience formats have become more standardised, retailers increasingly require refrigeration runs that align perfectly across both chilled and frozen cabinets.

Many traditional remote frozen display cabinets were originally designed for supermarket formats, so they typically didn’t align with chilled multideck cabinets, disrupting a clean layout and demanding more space.

In 2019, Pure Cold worked with Central Co-op to address this long-standing industry gap. By introducing remote full-glass door freezers precisely sized to match their chilled multideck cabinets, Pure Cold delivered a leading solution: a fully aligned, integrated line-up designed specifically for the convenience store footprint. The result was a significant step forward in store design efficiency.

The Challenge

The client needed a refrigeration solution that could:

  • Fit the convenience store footprint across both chilled and frozen cabinets
  • Deliver strong energy performance without compromising display area
  • Reduce overall plant capacity to streamline installation and lower lifecycle energy use
  • Create a consistent, integrated look across chilled and frozen runs
  • Avoid retrofitted or adapted solutions that compromise efficiency
  • Optimise merchandising space within compact store formats

Approach

Our solution was engineered from the ground up, focusing on cabinet alignment, energy efficiency and format suitability for convenience stores.

Purpose-built cabinet design for convenience-store dimensions

Instead of trying to adapt or retrofit standard supermarket-grade frozen cabinets, we developed remote full-glass door freezers that shared the same profile as our chilled multideck cabinets.

Energy-efficient architecture

The remote-system design allowed the refrigeration plant to be sized down for the lower overall energy consumption by the aligned cabinet line-up.

Glass-door display 

Using full-glass door frozen cabinets allowed maximum visibility without the need to open the door – reducing cold-air loss and improving temperature maintenance.

 

 

Results

This approach delivered several tangible benefits.

  • Optimised use of store footprint. Despite the relatively compact height and convenience-store-scale design, the aligned cabinets ensured an impressive display area and better product visibility
  • Consistent, clean store layout. The integrated chilled and frozen cabinets provided a seamless, integrated aesthetic with consistent line-of-sight to enhance the customer shopping experience
  • Downsized plant capacity. The new integrated cabinets enabled a reduction in required plant size by about 40%. This meant savings in capital outlay and ongoing energy consumption
  • Lower cost of ownership. Reduced energy consumption, smaller plant size and more efficient refrigeration architecture contributed to lower operating costs over time

Together, these improvements delivered a purpose-built refrigeration solution that strengthened store efficiency, reduced operating costs and elevated the overall convenience-store shopping experience.