Glass door refrigeration is a great solution for any retail business, including convenience store owners and newsagents who sell food products which must be stored and sold at certain temperatures.
Used as a way to showcase produce to customers, it’s never been more important for merchandising units to be energy efficient, food safe, and compliant with the latest legislation for your country.
At True, we’ve been building glass door refrigeration for some of the world’s largest retailers for many years, so we know what matters most to successful businesses when purchasing equipment.
To help you make the right choice for your retail business, we’ve rounded up the top eight benefits of our glass door fridges.
Food service approved units
Did you know, not all glass fronted fridges are created equal? Some glass door refrigerators are intended just to store drinks, so don’t necessarily hold the ≤5°C temperatures required for fresh food.
When purchasing refrigeration equipment for your business, it’s essential to know that it is fit for purpose. This means that you must check that the product is certified for food and not just beverages.
If this research isn’t carried out, you could end up making people ill. Especially since hot weather could equate to spoilt food if not kept at the correct temperature.
Our expert team are always on hand to help educate both users and the wider refrigeration market to understand the difference between the equipment and what its sole function is. Even though a buyer may find a cheaper fridge more appealing, it doesn’t make it a good investment if it hasn’t got a food safety certification – something which all of our glass door refrigeration units have.
Perfect temperature holding
There is now legislation around the holding temperatures of refrigeration equipment to ensure that food is kept fresh and safe to consume.
The tests used for verifying these temperatures involve simulating a real-life environment, before seeing whether it maintains safe food holding temperatures, as well as how much energy it uses and whether it operates efficiently.
True’s glass door fridges maintain the same strict temperature range and fast pull-down times as our foodservice products, and are all fully in-line with the current legislation.
Our low cabinet temperatures are ideal for packaged food merchandising in fast-moving customer-facing and self-serve environments.
Upsell with maximum product visibility
In order to whet a customer’s appetite, you need your produce to be easy to see and grab. That’s why our TVM range is designed with low-profile thin door frames and no centre mullion to increase product visibility.
In comparison, the GDM range offers different door types, including hinged swing door or slide doors to make retrieving products as easy as possible.
Buyers want to find their products easily, at a temperature that supports optimum freshness, both of which are important to us.
Durable equipment that you can trust
When looking for glass door refrigeration, you will want to choose equipment which won’t need replacing in the next couple of years. Otherwise, you may find yourself let down during your busy periods. Unfortunately, this is often the case when cheaper alternatives are chosen.
We believe that our refrigeration is an investment. The equipment is built to last, durable, and features heavy-duty PVC coated shelves. It also comes with our industry leading five-year parts and labour warranty, so that you can be back up and running as soon as possible.
Save on energy costs
Everyone is wanting to save costs on their energy. A good place to start with this is with your refrigeration units. When choosing a good fit for your retail business, make sure to look at the energy ratings.
Currently, every fridge manufacturer in Europe is required to send the results of their energy ratings to the EU government, who will verify what’s on the rating. In the UK, equipment is also legally required to have an energy performance certificate, but it doesn’t need to be verified. However, you can still check the ratings by researching them online or by speaking with a member of our friendly team.
At True, we do our own testing in the UK in an accredited lab, ensuring that our products are as energy efficient as possible. Additionally, we have launched an energy cost calculator to provide an estimate of the lifetime electrical (kilowatt-hours) savings that could be achieved by choosing (one or more) energy efficient products from True, compared to others on the market.
Grab your customers’ attention
Make your glass door fridges stand out from the crowd with bespoke features, such as illuminated sign panels which can be customised with your own graphics. GDM’s come with further cabinet-side branding options as well.
The True customisation design service also allows you to pick a colour which best suits your retail business. This is further enhanced by our high illumination LED lighting that provides a bright and even distribution of light through the full length of the cabinet.
All of these additions can help draw customers’ attention and make your store look more visually appealing.
Meet your sustainability goals
As customers focus more and more on the environmental impact of their operations, True shares in this common goal by producing a sustainable product using Natural Refrigerant.
This means that if you are considering commercial refrigeration for your business, you will need to be aware of environmentally unfriendly refrigerant gasses. Many gasses traditionally used have now been banned from sale in new equipment under the F-Gas Regulation.
Improve your store layout
Often, larger retail outlet buildings make use of fixed/remote cooling systems. This limits the amount of flexibility stores have in deviating from a fixed layout. Convenience operators know that in order to entice sales, you have to be constantly switching things up, adapting to changes in consumer demand and introducing new product lines.
Individual True units provide more flexible layouts. For instance, the TVM range is designed with a reduced depth which will sit flush with your non-refrigerated retail aisle shelving.
Alternatively, our varied model and size options also include refrigeration which can be kept on or behind a counter or at the checkout. This allows you to tailor your refrigerated (or frozen) product offering to your store and layout.
Choose glass door refrigeration from True
Now that you’re aware of the benefits of True’s glass door fridges, our team are on hand to help pick the best fit for your retail business, whether that be our GDM or TVM ranges.
Some retail business owners are wary about glass door refrigeration, thinking that it may be a barrier between their customers and cause loss in sales, compared to fully “open” cabinets. However, as energy prices increase, an open fridge will cost significantly more in electricity bills, so we would recommend taking the leap to glass door refrigeration.
Legislation is also continuously changing in the refrigeration industry. This means that some equipment in the field today can no longer be replaced like-for-like, since they do not meet current laws around excessive energy consumption and environmentally unfriendly refrigerant gasses.
We want to help you make the right choice that will benefit your business in the long-term.
Get in touch today to find out more about our product range, or visit our Energy Cost Calculator to see what you could save by switching to True Refrigeration’s glass door fridges.
