PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
The refrigeration packs are fitted out with Bitzer compressors.
store, which already added some 13 000
shoppers to its loyalty programme within
the two weeks of its ‘soft opening’. It is
expected to reach in excess of 15 000
shoppers in the next six months (Pretoria
boasts over 70 000 currently).
Evergreens is a one-stop shop and
supplies fresh produce, groceries and
frozen goods for both retail and bulk
shoppers. It includes a butchery, a bakery
and a hot foods section that they are
looking to expand. There is even an onsite
packaging and processing facility to
deal with produce as it comes into the
receiving side. Currently Evergreens takes
about 30 to 40 deliveries a day.
The whole process is digitised and all
products are scanned and monitored
from receiving until it is sold.
The business commands high food-
safety standards in all practices, and
with multi-temperature refrigerated
trucks to ensure the products last as
long as possible. They have their own
buyers where they source produce
directly from the farms daily from nearly
500 different suppliers.
They are very involved and hands-on,
visiting every single farm and factory
before taking in their produce. They
even visited the CRS workshop to make
sure they are happy with the operation
before agreeing to let them build the
refrigeration packs.
Evergreens is very strict with regards
to quality and according to Lopes, the
whole aim is to keep things fresh, so you
don’t have to throw away produce. There
are barely bins around – only small ones.
“Retail is about detail,” says Lopes. “If I
can’t eat it, then my customer can’t eat
it either.”
Evergreens only uses local produce as
far as possible, but do source imported
products such as grapes (out of season),
kiwi fruit and certain other items not
available or grown in South Africa.
GOING CO 2
Although CO 2 seems like an
unconventional choice for this type of
installation, there has been a big push for
South African retailers to go green and
opt for natural refrigerants to bring local
stores in line with global policy. The Kigali
Amendment to the Montreal Protocol
continues to have a great impact on the
future of refrigerants around the world,
adding pressure to phase-out or phase-
down towards more environmentally
friendly refrigeration systems.
CRS pitched the CO 2 option to
Evergreens as the size of the project
meant that it fell into a gap where it is
large enough for it to be cheaper than
a synthetic-refrigerant solution and small
enough to be cheaper than ammonia.
Not only was the capital expenditure less
than the alternatives, but CO 2 provided
the benefit of being more energy efficient.
“The client was looking for a future-
proof solution and after considering
the environmental impact of different
refrigerants and the phase-out and
phase-down of greenhouse gases, they
decided that CO 2 was the better option,”
explains Maurice Robinson, director of
sales and marketing at Sphere (the CRS
holding company).
SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
Evergreens chose a transcritical CO 2
system, with CRS supplying and installing
the new racks as well as new evaporators,
The impressive 22 000m 2 Evergreens fresh produce market in Johannesburg opened in August.
COLD LINK AFRICA •
OCTOBER 2019
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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