Landmark LED Retrofit Project Planned at Fresh & Easy

In what’s being described as a retail food industry first, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will have the medium-temperature cases in its 159 stores retrofitted with LED lighting by Nualight, Ltd., a manufacturer of LED lighting solutions for retail, and refrigerated case vendor Kysor/Warren. Both companies have a long track record of working with Fresh & Easy’s parent company, U.K. retailer Tesco.

All meat, dairy and fish cases at the stores will be upgraded to LED, replacing the existing T5 Fluorescent canopy and undershelf lighting. According to Nualight, the installations will begin late in the second quarter, and could take from one to three months. Fresh & Easy currently employs LED lighting in external signs and freezer cases.

“Nualight’s energy-saving lightbars and unrivalled understanding of retail merchandising [are] already helping our corporation globally to reduce costs and meet its environmental objectives,” noted Steve Hagen, head of procurement at El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy, which operates over 150 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Nualight and Kysor/Warren, a division of New Port Richey, Fla.-based Manitowoc Foodservice, Ltd., signed a strategic supply and partnership agreement in August 2009, enabling Kysor/Warren to provide customers with bright, vibrant food displays that conserve energy.

Jim Knudsen, VP of sales and marketing for Columbus, Ga.-based Kysor/Warren, characterized the landmark undertaking as “an example of our ongoing commitment to listen, respond and deliver for our customers while providing an innovative approach to energy efficiency.”

“Our success retrofitting … Tesco stores internationally led to this opportunity, and this newest assignment provides a valuable springboard for our expansion into the U.S. market,” noted Nualight VP Bruce Schneider, who heads the company’s U.S. operations in Charlotte, N.C. The only company in the world that focuses exclusively on illuminating refrigerated displays for global food retail, Cork, Ireland-based Nualight offers the Vantium product series, which energy consumption in refrigerated displays by more than 60 percent

LED fixtures enable energy savings of as much as 60 percent, both from lighting and refrigeration energy. The technology also slashes maintenance costs because of its longer lifetime. Retailers are among the highest commercial users of energy, with lighting and refrigeration accounting for 78 percent of all energy usage in supermarkets.

On average, Fresh & Easy stores use 30 percent less energy than an average supermarket. The banner also offers customer recycling at every location, employs advanced refrigeration and freezer units, uses skylights and windows to reduce energy usage, and recycles or reuses all display packaging.
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